Top 50 Memorable Bollywood Characters: Kaveri Amma from Swades

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In this weekly series, Rahul Desai lists 50 of Hindi cinema’s favourite “third wheels” – that is, memorable characters whose roles are little more than fleeting cameos and little less than supporting turns – since 1990. There will be no particular order: just a colourful recollection of emblematic faces who’ve left us craving for more. Pardes, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham..., Kal Ho Naa Ho. Many of post-liberalization India’s definitive Bollywood films devised immigration as a “character trait” that was meant to serve the central conflict of divisive romance. Ashutosh Gowariker’s Swades (2004), a grown-up comment on the lavish physicality of NRI cinema, presents an ambitious young hero for whom love is only one of several feelings that feed his…