| Subject: "Gandhi, My Father" |
Author:
Ramnik Shah
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Date Posted: Tue, August 21 2007, 18:02:28-4
This film, which opened both here and in India simultaneously a couple of weeks ago, has received warm crticial reviews and I would unhesitatingly echo them here. Unfortunately we missed the first 5 or 10 minutes of it, because of car parking problems, but it was not difficult to get into the pulse of the plot as it unfolded, even though at first the sanitized characters in their fine costumery and expensively made up facial images did seem to convey an imitation of the modern Indian tv soap!
The advance publicity had suggested that this is a film about Harilal, Gandhi`s eldest son, and his relationship with his saintly father, the Mahatma; but it is more than that. We are given a richly dimensional portrait of not just Harilal but of both his parents, and of his wife Gulab as well. What comes through so strikingly is that theirs is a complex relationship at all levels. As the film picks up speed, we get drawn into the dynamics of their lives through the vicissitudes of time and space, action and emotion and interplay of collective and individual drama.
In the early scenes, we see a youthful and handsome Harilal marry a shy and pretty Gulab with whom he is clearly in love but whom he has to leave behind in India while he is commanded to join his father in South Africa. For some reason the older Gandhi, then in full swing as a rising attorney there, was reluctant for Gulab to join them in South Africa but charmingly caves in after his English secretary persuades him to and so Gulab does arrive. However, Gandhi continues to control not just his household, holding the purse-springs, but also to dictate what Harilal should do and not. He neglects Harilal`s education and thwarts the young man`s ambition to go to England to train as a barrister like himself. He directs him to take part in the `satyagraha` struggle in South Africa and Harilal willingly does so, always wanting to impress his father as an adoring and obedient son, who worshipped the heroic figure that Gandhi had become. Harilal was in complete awe of him. Gandhi failed to notice the effect he was having on Harilal until in a poignant exchange between them Harilal exposes his inner turmoil, after Gulab had left him and returned to India with their children, bidding him to stay on and serve his father `s cause. At that point, we see the beginning of a mature relationship between the two, but a long and troublesome long journey lay ahead for both of them. At any rate, Gandhi grants Harilal`s wish to join his wife and children and so the action switches to India.
Harilal tries to make an honest living and to be a good husband and father to his children in Ahmedabad but his limited education and lack of business and practical acumen militate against that. It is only the fact of being Gandhi`s son that helps him to keep afloat, often as a recipient of the largesse of benefactors who were propelled by the Gandhi name or connection to prop him up, or even to exploit him, as some unscrupulous big businessmen did. His sense of being a failure deepens as one scheme after another proves to be a disaster. His marriage falls apart. He become an alcoholic. He even changes religion to become a Muslim, though later he was to repent and revert to Hinduism. Gandhi`s magnanimous reaction to it is a stunning piece, revelatory of his greatness. But Harilal, alas, was a classic lost soul, trying to find and define himself, to clutch at straws, getting into a muddle.
All this of course takes place against the background of Gandhi`s triumphant return and rise to the status of a `Mahatma`, as the undoubted leader of the freedom struggle and the father of the nation. At every significant twist and turn of the narrative we see the two come face to face - either when Harilal returns to the family home after his wanderings (even a spell in jail) or when the paterfamilias goes looking for him in an effort to reconcile and persuade him to rejoin the fold and more importantly the freedom struggle. The movie however stays clear of involvement of any of the Gandhis` other children. The focus is entirely on Harilal.
But as noted above, it is not just about Harilal and his father. His mother (Kasturba, `Baa`) has an important part to play in all the drama, right from the beginning to (her) end. Like all women who are caught between an extremely powerful or dominant husband and a rebellious offspring, she recognizes the force of the conflicts and dilemmas inherent in such a situation and tries to play the role of the arbiter and adviser, never abandoning (as no mother of course would) hope that Harilal would some day fall in line. The spousal relationship between the Mahatma and Baa too is beautifully captured, through the different stages of their lives.
We are of course familiar Attenborough`s `Gandhi`. There are many strong resonances of that here, in both the South African and Indian settings, with some historic news footage thrown in, of marches and meetings, court appearances and other dramatic moments or confrontations. Remember the sequence in `Gandhi` when he tends to his ailing wife, as she is nearing death? Well, we are privileged to witness this again and what leads to it in delicate detail. It is as moving as it was in the first `Gandhi`.
And then, as both the movie and real-life plot moves relentlessly to its climactic end, we relive the trauma of partition and the untimely end of both father and son in that order, the latter`s as tragic, in a different sense, as that of the Mahatma!
While still savouring the aura of the film, I was relieved to some extent - because of an unspoken apprehension that it might make us rethink our opinion of the Mahatma. It should not. There are of course many examples in history of great men and women who have a hidden private life or had to undergo many inner turmoils, often on account of their children. Once Gandhi realized that he had failed Harilal, he came to terms with that, but he also sought to impress upon Baa that Harilal had to take responsibility for the consequences of his own actions as he was an adult. He himself had a greater calling, and cause to serve. While that might appear as if he was washing his hands off his son, he was shown to care and was caring all the same.
I wouldn`t be surprised if it is nominated for next year`s Oscars in the foreign language category. `Foreign language`? Yes, it is in Hindi, but one hardly notices that - the subtitles and the subject-matter are so gripping that one can follow the dialogue effortlessly, imperceptibly. This coming from me whose grasp of Hindi is poor is a tribute indeed. The technical presentation is superb too, as is the acting - Harilal is played by Akshaye Khanna, Gulab by Bhoomica Chawla, Mahatma Gandhi by Darshan Jariwala and Kasturba by Sheffali Shah. The director is Feroze Khan, who has also co-written the script with Chandulal Dalal. The music, in particular the singing of `Ragupati Ragav Raja Ram` is beautifully rendered too. I am hurrying with this and have compressed it somewhat because I am so excited to report about this unique film experience. Don`t miss it.
RAMNIK SHAH
(NOTE: This is a slighly revised and expanded version of my review which I first posted on the Africana-Orientalia List on 10 August)
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