By: Ambika Prem Kumar

The movie, Gandhi starts with the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi on January 30, 1948. He was killed because of the split of Hindus and Muslims into Pakistan and India, instead of trying to keep the country united (which was impossible at the time). Then rolls the flashback with Mahatma, a practicing lawyer in South Africa being thrown out of a moving train only on him being a black, travelling in a 'Whites Only' First Class compartment having a first class ticket. He still protests against this unreasonable discrimination.

Gandhi is motivated by religious means; he believes that everyone is equal in God's eyes. He gets involved in several movements for equality and stresses on non-violence very strongly. The Indians are mad because British rule continues to limit their rights. The Indians want to fight against the British and their sole aim is to kill them. But Gandhi discourages them from violence. The film gradually delves deeper into his thoughts & awakenings as he takes up the cause of racism & apartheid.

Amrish Puri's cameo as Khan in South Africa is noteworthy. After Bapu champions the cause in South Africa, he returns back with Kasturba and the scene where he boards the ship amidst thunderous applause imbued with tears has been handled in an excellent manner. Rohini Hattangady almost portrays Kasturba in flesh. In India, Ben as Mahatma stuns the viewers in one of the most engaging Larger-Than-Life enactments. His mannerisms, gait, talk, the childish smile, flawlessly expressive eyes and overall, stamps his indomitable authority on the character. No one else, but Ben could have done justice to the role. There he meets, the dashing Jawahar Lal Nehru, played by Roshan Seth whose twinkling eyes and divine smile along with the awe-inspiring dialogue delivery making the viewer in believing that he were the actual Nehru. Ian Charleson as Charlie Andrews who accompanies the Mahatma and loved by both Bapu and Kasturba puts in a flamboyant performance. The scene where Bapu insists on sitting atop a moving train along with the common men notwithstanding Kasturba's fear is one of the truest depictions in Cinema.

But, the Gem of a scene soon follows, where the Mahatma and a poor washerwomen engage in a modest eye contact, the later innocently covering up her chastity with whatever she finds. Gandhi immediately drapes her with his dhoti. An essence of emotion is shown up in this scene.

The Freedom struggle takes over in a brief period. Saeed Jaffrey's resolute yet comical understatement as Sardar Patel is excellent. Shree Ram Lagoo as Gokhale chips in with a fine performance. In one of the most talked about scenes involving the 'Jallianwala Bagh Massacre', Edward Fox as Gen. Dyer sizzles ruthlessly. The carnage has been given ample footage with excellent Camera work prevailing all the way. The scenes where innocent people jump into a well to survive the flurry of bullets will make anyone cry.

'The Non-cooperation Movement' and the participation of people from all walks of life are given a fantastic cinematic dimension. Martin Sheen as Reporter Walker gets even with his role energetically while John Gielgud as Lord Irwin does true justice to his role. Lots of Indian actors put in fine performances, namely, Anang Desai (Kriplani), Alyque Padamsee (Jinnah), late Virendra Razdan (Maulana Azad) and a host of others. The 'Dandi March' is a revolution, which has to be seen in the movie to be believed. Who else but Om Puri could have delivered the character of Nahari, a violent victim of the Salt issue?

The film portrays the relationship between Mahatma and Kasturba in an extremely beautiful and sensitive manner. During one scene, they ask all of Gandhi's followers to burn all of their clothes that were made in Britain and wear only what they can make themselves. Gandhi practices this for the rest of his life, usually wearing just a loincloth.

In another scene, Gandhi is in jail, and some of his followers are peacefully gathered in a square. The police lock up the square and kill almost everyone, over 1,500 people. Gandhi is disgusted and discouraged. Also, a reporter for Time magazine met Gandhi when he was in jail, took a lot of pictures of him, and made his plight known to the world.

He continues to preach non-violence, but the Indians do have occasional conflict with the police. Gandhi's counter to the popular phrase "an eye for an eye" says that, after that, "everyone will be blind." Gandhi leads several organized protests against British rule. In one, all Indians stopped doing their work, and the major cities in the country were disabled. Another time, he led a 165-mile walk to the sea to protest the British monopoly on salt. The Indians made their own salt out of the sea.

 A turning point on the Indian fight for independence was the Western press. Reporters witnessed a scene in which Indians tried to get into a factory row by row, and were brutally beaten by soldiers, row by row, as the women pulled the dead and injured away.

Finally, Gandhi travels to Europe to negotiate India's freedom. While there, they cover some ground, but the actual release comes several years later, on August 15, 1947. After they are free, there is a civil war between the Hindus and the Muslims. They are forced to move around so they are in separate parts, India and Pakistan, and total chaos breaks out. Gandhi goes on another one of his fasts and refuses to eat until he is convinced all fighting has stopped. This is very difficult, but is accomplished. Soon afterwards, however, is his assassination.

The movie boasts of praise-worthy technical aspects. Screenplay by John Briley is engaging. The cinematographers Ronnie Taylor and Billy Williams have done a marvellous job by capturing the hues of rural India with ease. The settings and art have been given an astounding changeover with a definitive British look. Ravi Shankar's enigmatic music and Vanraj Bhatia's background score truly celebrates the mood of the movie. The Vaishnav-Jana...Veer paraye chants in Sabarmati takes one closer to the notion of divinity. Bhanu Athaiya's costume won her an Oscar (The 1st Indian to get this). Gandhi got 11 nominations to the Oscar, eventually won 9, piping Spielberg's Alien Fantasy. The only aspect that this movie lacked was coverage. In spite of that it still has made a mark on a number of Indians. It is a must watch for every Indian.

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