Great First Half, Weak Second Half

Rating: 6/10 (6 February 2013)

The first half of the movie made me develop an interest in Mohandas Gandhi and why he developed as he did. You see him young, wearing a turban but otherwise a regular suit and tie, and he encounters racism when he is thrown off a train for illegally being an a first class compartment when he is an Indian. Then he leads a struggle against racism in South Africa, winning some success before moving to India, which he says (in the movie) is a strange country to him. He would fight against British colonial rule of India, but then realizes that ending it might only lead to a government of Indians who would be just as bad-and then he adopts his famous white Indian clothing. After that, the movie falters, and we see less about Gandhi than the political events that follow, not delivered with great accuracy.
Ben Kingsley delivers a perfect performance, looking and acting the part. But the image of Gandhi is completely idealized, and he never gets angry or otherwise seems like a real human being. Indeed, there were things about the historical Gandhi that would appall most people. But this is a movie to entertain, not teach.