A perfect piece of handicraft. its what i can say about movie 'gandhi my father'. Each string of it is well woven, and so perfect that it catches u from the very first sequence.
Well the movie, starts of with Harilal [akshaye khanna] on the edge of his life. In a hospital. Being braught as a orphan, a beggr, a drunkard. Wardboy asks him his father’s name, he just says ‘bapu’. [well well where was this akshaye earlier?]. then the flash back starts.
Can u ever imagine Gandhiji as a young man doing normal things with family? No, but in this flick u oughta see that. Here he is having moments of fun with her wife and kids too. This is where director wins. He has taken the way never traveled. The story never been told. Okay there was a movie ‘making of mahatma’ which potrayed his earlier years. But as a parent, you can see him here. All known incidents at south Africa and things followed, are described as a background only.
Meanwhile Harilal is in Gujarat and merry Gulab [bhoomika chawla]. Father Gandhi[Darshan Jhariwala] didn’t like disobeying by his own son. He calles him in south Africa.
The first scene of them together is like a picture frame. Harilal comes and sits a step down to him. Just two shadows are here. Against a rising sun. simply superb camerawork.
Director used this thing at some crucial points of the movie which is really good new technique. Harilal takes lead in satyagrah at Africa. All scenes are in black and white & in style of motion picture which was ther at that time. Where hand operated cameras take images faster to make scene moving. Another good effort to make movie real.
Differences arise when Gandhiji don’t send Hari to London, to study low. That thing is offended by Kasturba, his wife [shefali shah]. A well acted scene. Shefali is pure natural as a mother and as a wife.
Then follows falls of Harilal and rise of Gandhi as ‘bapu’ and the story continues. Till the end of both persons’ life.
Akshaye simply gives a stupendous performance. He brings u to tears at some scenes.
One scene where he is defeated after failing in metric, three times, he runs intgo public and tells everyone that he’s worthless son of Gandhi.
And the other when his wife dies and he comes and weeps, simply hair raising act.
On the other hand, his better half Gulab, played by bhoomika, is also a controlled and silent act. Very well played.
As Gandhi, Darshan is very good. Its hard to playh a character, earlier played by who’s who of cinema like, Naseer and Ben kingsley. But we can see Darshan’s dedication to role. His body language, speech, everything is very well worked out,.
Shefali again as bhoomika, silent supporter to Gandhi and a careful mother to Hari. Is also good choice for character of Kasturba.
One scene of both Kasturba and Gandhiji is a highlight. After conversion of Religion of Hari; both of them sat at a sea shore in chairs. Again shadows works here as main element. Another scene when kasturba dies, is also like a picture frame. May be this is because feroz abbas khan the director- is a person of theater. So he knows shadows very well. And also the darkness.
On the rise of new nation, hari is lying in darkness. Very symbolic.
Background score is good. Gujarati songs are used at places. Sanskrit shlokas. Followed by Gandhiji’s favorite bhajans. At one time, in background of a scene from Ashram, a bhajan played at really soft voice, ‘sakal lok ma sahu ne vande ‘ Beautiful.
Many Gandhi’ists were worried about negative potrayel of gandhiji in movie. But there is no such thing. He is potrayed as he is. Audience can feel pain of Harilal but at the same time they don’t feel bad ‘bapu’. That’s very big plus point of this movie. This is surely gonna hit awards a big time. A must watch movie. A revival of Akshaye. A perfect movie. Hats off to both Feroz and Anil Kapoor for touching an untouched story.
