Swami Vivekananda (1998 film)

Swami Vivekananda
Promotional posted of the film
Directed by	G. V. Iyer
Produced by	T. Subbarami Reddy
Written by	G. V. Iyer
Screenplay by	G. V. Iyer
Based on	Life of Swami Vivekananda
Starring	Sarvadaman D. Banerjee Mithun Chakraborty Debashree Roy Jayaprada Shammi Kapoor Shashi Kapoor Raakhee
Music by	Salil Chowdhury
Cinematography	Madhu Ambat
Edited by	B. Lenin V. T. Vijayan
Distributed by	Anantha Lakshmi Films
Release date	12 June 1998 (1998-06-12) (India)
Running time	240 minutes
Country	India
Language	Hindi English
Budget	₹30 million (US$470,000)

Swami Vivekananda is a 1998 Indian biographical film directed by G. V. Iyer and produced by T. Subbarami Reddy. It took Iyer 11 years to finish the research work required for the film and to write the screenplay.

The film starred Sarvadaman D. Banerjee as Swami Vivekananda, the 19th-century Hindu monk, and Mithun Chakraborty as Ramakrishna, his guru. Even though the film was completed and was considered for 1995 national awards, the film got released on 12 June 1998. The film was premiered on India's public service broadcaster Doordarshan on 15 August 1998, the country's Independence Day.

The film received mixed, mainly negative, reviews from critics. Mithun Chakraborty's acting in this film was widely appreciated and he won his third National Film Award.

The film mainly captures the events of Vivekananda's life from his birth to 1897, when he returned to India from the West. The film begins with the birth of Narendranath Datta (pre-monastic name of Swami Vivekananda) and shows the neighbors and relatives of Datta family celebrating the event. It immediately moves to the scene where Narendranath sees his father Vishwanath Datta is donating money, clothes, food to poor and distressed people. Seeing this, young Narendranath asks his father to give him something too, and his father tells him to go and look at mirror and find what he had already given him. Following his father's suggestion, Narendranath goes to the room, sees his image in the mirror.

Different events of child Narndranath are shown one by one, such as his mother is melodiously reciting religious scriptures which leaves an impression on his young mind, Narendranath practicing meditation, his mother is teaching him that experience is true knowledge, and his interest in studying a wide range of subjects.