Non-violence & Truth Vs Imperialism & Discrimination

Rating: 9/10 (27 August 2012)

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, This gem in biographic cinema exactly does that and sketches Gandhi's life.
Movie starts as M.k Gandhi in his youth, after becoming attorney comes to South . Africa (1893) . He was thrown out of the train for sitting in the first class being an Indian. After his bitter welcome which took him completely by surprise , he starts his fight for the rights of Indians while protesting against the pass law and being successful . Then flick shifts the focus on his return to India (1915) and how he sacrificed his life in India's freedom struggle and at last India won freedom through his non - violence movements i.e, Champaran movement, non- cooperation movement, burning of foreign clothes , salt march etc. Flick is able to successfully sketch the pain Gandhi suffered while accepting a separate nation Pakistan what made him to took that decision and how that decision become the reason for his assassination .
Richard Attenborough fought the world to make this movie, as he struggled for monitory help. He even sold his share of the ownership from famous English play "The Mousetrap". Richard Attenborough pushed Ben Kingsley to his limits for taking out acting performance of a lifetime by Ben Kingsley as Gandhi. Ben is of Indian origin that surely helped his performance, he was so into his role that during the shoot many natives thought him to be Gandhi's ghost. The beautiful screenplay by John Briley and good work by supporting cast , all doing justice to their characters this movie in a complete package.
There is very little to write about the flaws . Some of them were , The South African police were shown both arresting and beating Gandhi for burning passes during his protest of the Pass Law. although in reality Gandhi and his fellow protesters were arrested for burning the passes, but were not beaten . And its bit odd when we see Ben as Gandhi addressing Indian mass in English , the movie would have been more real if those parts were in Hindi.
There are not many movies which are a must - see for all irrespective of the nationality , languages , cultures or sex , this masterpiece is one of them . If compared this masterpiece with other famous biographic gems like the ''Shindler's List" or " Beautiful mind " they fall behind in terms of effect this movie cause to masses. To greatness of this simple man Gandhi, Albert Einstein added, "Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth."