No man's life can be encompassed in one telling. There is no way to give each year its allotted weight, to include each event, each person who helped to shape a lifetime. What can be done is to be faithful in spirit to the record and to try to find one's way to the heart of the man.
Thus begins one of the most
iconic films of all times made on the most important Indian of the last
century, and the man making that statement, Richard Attenborough, knows what he
was trying to do and does it in the most emphatic manner. It was also said that
when Attenborough approached Nehru with the idea for this film, Nehru told him “don’t
make the man a bloody saint Richard” and while it is debatable to say that Attenborough
obliged the Prime Minister, he certainly gave us the most enduring and appeasing portrayal of Gandhi on film.
I watched Gandhi on a
British Airways flight from London to New York in 2012, it was an interesting
time for me to watch a film like that. The Airlines has a few other alternatives
to choose from but I’m glad I chose Gandhi, for it was a rousing film. I always
found the film to be an action drama despite the fact that not a drop of blood
was spilled in the entire film. Even in flight, watching in a screen measuring
only about seven inches, I still remember how each scene made me feel. The
scenes in South Africa were particularly gripping in their depiction of the
power of non-violent protest, and Ben Kingsley’s tour de force as Gandhi still
gives me goose flesh every time I remember the determined look on his face, or
listen to his voice. I never heard Gandhi speak but after more than 4 years of
watching the film, I still remember Kingsley’s voice and his piercing gaze
whenever I think of that film.
John Briley’s screenplay
doesn’t waste too much time on setting the man up or the circumstances he has
to deal with, instead the narrative directly begins on the day of his
assassination and immediately flashes back to the most important achievement of
Gandhi outside India, the non-violent protest against racial discrimination against
Indians in South Africa, triggered by him being thrown off from a train. The narrative
then touches upon all the major landmarks of the Indian Freedom struggle and
focuses on Gandhi’s role in uniting the nation towards the cause of Freedom.
Richard Attenborough’s
biopic is not a complex film at all, for it does not delve deeper into
personality traits of Mohandas Gandhi, nor it touches upon Gandhi’s skewed relationships
with other prominent leaders of freedom struggle, notably Jinnah. It aims for
being an epic and largely succeeds in glossing over anything that seem to
diminish Gandhi’s image, with its singular focus on the man at all times that others
fade in comparison, but still it serves as an important introduction to the
phenomenon of Gandhi.
Gandhi won all sorts of
awards when it released in 1982 including the Oscars and is an important film
to be preserved, cherished, and reintroduced to newer generations. Zee Classic
in its efforts to bring back India’s finest films is going to premiere Gandhi this
Saturday, i.e. on 13th of August at 8 PM, and again on our
Independence Day (15th August) at 9:30 AM. If you haven’t watched
the film yet, I urge you to do so, and if you saw it already, I know you won’t
be missing this telecast.
