a half-naked fakir who fought for peace

Rating: Null/10 (25 April 2006)

Gandhi is not a simple biopic bogged down in the common features of this genre.The movie starts with the scene of his being thrown off a train on the way to South Africa after refusing to move from the first class compartment to a third class one, used by colored peoples, while holding a first class ticket gained through mail.Then we see his starting a non-violent civil disobedience organization in South Africa by encouraging Indians to burn their registration cards,to oppose the discriminatory laws.After gaining a somewhat epic victory over General Smuts he goes back to India.He starts the rouse the same civil consciousness among the Indians here.Through non-violence and non-cooperation policy he creates many things.The famous 400 kilometers Salt March,his encouraging the use of homespun cloth (khadi)against the British clothing,his learning to love rather than feeling lust are all parts of his philosophy.He was not a man of status quo.He improved himself by thinking,reading,actively seeing the abject poverty of his people by traveling through hundreds of locations in the Indian countryside.He was a man of evolving.While he was a man who said "God is truth" he became a man "Truth is God".His principles:"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind"."There are many causes that I am prepared to die for but no causes that I am prepared to kill for".inspired many people around him though it seemed they were not enough for the fanatic minds bogging down in civil war after the Indian,Pakistani independence.This is what this movie about.It is long but it couldn't have been shorter to cinematize this great soul.On the contrary to what few people claimed I believe Ben Kingsley deserved Oscar with his perfect acting,finesse,and his lively portrayal. There is only one deviation from the historical truth in the movie.It is not basically a deviation but we don't see any of Gandhi's having children.After marrying his wife through his parents' arrangement they had four sons.Yes it's true that he gave up his marriage life through celibacy according to his philosophy of brahmacharya but they had a physical marriage life before that. We don't see much of it in the movie.Other than that Gandhi is not a showcase of an actor,neither does it try to make you blind with only the positive sides of him.An example Gandhi supported the British in World War I and encouraged Indians to join the army.Even if his rationale behind that was that "if he desired the full citizenship, freedoms and rights in the Empire, it would be wrong not to help in its defense." that turned out to be utterly wrong for India. We see something about Jinnah-Gandhi conflict too in the movie.When India was about to gain its independence the Muslim community was in fears of being melted down so Jinnah did what he thought right for the Muslim community but in the end neither his efforts nor Gandhi's fasting couldn't prevent the two communities getting involved in a civil war.The movie shows epic scenes in the border conflict between Hindus and Muslims.To know more about this conflict of course just a movie is not enough but the director does his best.The basic turn-of events result from the piggish attitude of the British empire actually. They always left a bone of contention where-ever they left.Today Kasmir is still a problem for internal conflicts for these two countries.Think about other examples(Musul-Kirkuk. The British did not want to leave here to Turkey because of petroleum.Now these cities are still bone of contention between Kurds Turkomans and Shiite Arabs.Israel-50 year old state which has no natural borders.Palestine,which has still no natural borders created to hush the Muslims.Lebanon is another one which is still having problems.So what the British left for the world was not other than misery and conflict.What the modern counterpart USA will leave for the centuries to come won't be different than that at all.You may ask whether I wrote for the movie or not?Well of course it was general but don't contend with just seeing this movie.We have so much to learn for the peace of the world and for this purpose it's not enough just to see the movie even Gandhi is a nearly perfectly made movie.