“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 shape a lifetime. What can be done is to be faithful in spirit to the record and try to find one’s way to the heart of the man…” – Preface to the movie Gandhi
The year: 1893; the location: somewhere in South Africa. A young man of Indian descent rides comfortably in the first-class section of a train rolling through the countryside.. Suddenly he’s challenged by the train’s conductor: “Just what are you doing in this car… coolie?” The young man responds calmly that he has a first class ticket, and that he’s a lawyer on his way to Pretoria to visit a client. “There are no colored lawyers in South Africa,” haughtily sniffs a white passenger standing behind the conductor. “Go back and sit where you belong.”
When the young man protests, he and his baggage are summarily thrown off the train at the next stop.
A seemingly minor and all-too-common incident in South Africa, a land that for decades had institutionalized racial segregation in its system of apartheid. Yet, this incident had a profound effect on that young lawyer, Mohandas K. Gandhi. Perplexed and outraged by his treatment, but unwilling to engage in any form of violence, Gandhi began a half-century long battle for political and economic equality for his people. His weapons of choice: an almost mystical spirituality; an deep and abiding commitment to justice and equality; and a philosophy of non-violent resistance to unjust laws and repressive civil authority.
Gandhi is a brilliant encapsulation of the life of the man who must be counted among the greatest, most admirable figures in the history of humankind. Starring Ben Kingsley, Martin Sheen, Candice Bergen, Rohini Hattangady, Roshan Seth, John Gielgud, and Trevor Howard, and directed by Richard Attenborough, this 1982 film is an absolutely stunning achievement – without doubt one of the finest biographical epics ever made. It garnered six Academy Awards, including Best Picture; Best Actor (Kingsley); and Best Director (Attenborough). Gandhi beautifully fulfills the goals set out in the film’s preface: “…to be faithful in spirit to the record and try to find one’s way to the heart of the man…”
As the film continues, we find the young Gandhi toiling ceaselessly in South Africa on behalf of the nation’s oppressed Indian population. Always faithful to his principles of equality, justice, and peace, he uses non-violent civil disobedience as he leads an ever-growing body of disciples in peaceful demonstrations throughout South Africa. He is repeatedly assaulted by police and white South African citizens. He is imprisoned – usually on trumped up charges – several times because of his political beliefs and activism. He helps establish ashrams – communal villages where people can live and work and share resources in complete harmony, without fear of intimidation by white South Africans. His fame in South Africa and throughout the world grows; yet this always gentle and humble gentle man never loses sight of his main goal: helping his people achieve political and economic equality. Although only marginally successful, Gandhi nevertheless becomes a beacon of hope throughout the world for his work in South Africa.
In 1915, Gandhi is released from the last of a succession of terms in South African prisons. After 22 years in South Africa, he returns to India with his family, hoping to settle into a less prominent lifestyle. But a quiet, family-oriented existence is not to be; his hard-earned fame has preceded him. Encouraged by Indian nationalist leaders like Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, and Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Gandhi becomes the focal point for the budding independence movement in India. It is a fight that will last for over 30 years.
The balance of Gandhi shows how the Mahatma (Great Soul) leads a nation of 350 million people to freedom from British colonial rule using only non-violent means. At the outset, we find a young and tentative Gandhi making speeches in his low-key style, but even then espousing his clearly defined doctrine of peaceful non-cooperation against a repressive British colonial rule.
As this masterfully produced, directed, written, and acted film clearly demonstrates, Mohandas K. Gandhi is the catalyst for many of the most momentous events in twentieth century Indian history. Contrary to many public perceptions of the man, this film shows that Gandhi was not just a simple, humble man in a loincloth. He was a shrewd, pragmatic man who knew the value of good press in the furtherance of his cause. He knew how to confront his political enemies in ways that got his point across while garnering from his foes a begrudging respect.
Under his leadership, a general workers’ strike almost brings the entire nation to a halt. The result: Gandhi is once again arrested and charged with sedition. While Gandhi is imprisoned, there occurs one of the worst British atrocities of modern times: the massacre at the Golden Temple of Amritsar. Indian soldiers under the command of British General Edward Dyer open fire on a crowd gathered in peaceful protest, killing “1,516 innocent men, women, and children with 1,650 bullets.” Shortly thereafter, an unrepentant General Dyer testifies before a board of inquiry: “My intention was to inflict a lesson that would have an impact throughout all India.”
After his release from prison, Gandhi makes his famous “salt march” – a symbolic gesture intended to break the British monopoly on salt. The Mahatma quickly finds himself back behind bars. Gandhi’s disciples protest his imprisonment by subjecting themselves to brutal beatings from British-led Indian soldiers at the Dharasana Salt Works. Later, after being freed again, Gandhi travels to Britain and participates in a series of fruitless negotiations with intransigent British government officials over Indian independence.
Here begins the decades-long strife between India’s Hindu majority and Muslim minority. Gandhi, always a proponent of Indian unity, attempts to heal old sectarian wounds. When political and religious friction flares into open violence, Gandhi begins a hunger strike in an effort to stop the bloodshed. Vowing to fast unto death unless the violence stopped, Gandhi nearly succeeds at starving himself to death before opposing sides lay down their arms.
Then – at long last – victory! India is granted her independence. But it’s a victory at a terrible price. After three decades of struggle, the British government finally, reluctantly grants independence to India; but, recognizing the divisions between Hindus and Muslims, the British also grant independence to another new nation with a Muslim majority – Pakistan. Civil War breaks out almost immediately. It’s the beginning of a new and terrible period of violence on the Indian subcontinent. Once again, Gandhi resorts to a fast unto death to bring the violence to a halt; and once again, the Mahatma nearly dies from self-imposed starvation before the bloodshed ceases.
Throughout all these tumultuous events, Gandhi never wavers from his belief in non-violent civil resistance as a means of achieving justice, equality, and freedom for the Indian nation.
Finally, a supreme irony: January 30, 1948, Mohandas K. Gandhi – the man of peace who consistently espouses the dignity of all people; the proponent of non-violence, equality, justice, and peace – is violently gunned down by an assassin who is a member of a fanatic Hindu sect.
There are simply not enough superlatives to do adequate justice to Gandhi. Every aspect of this film is masterfully done! Ben Kingsley’s portrayal of Gandhi is one of those singular performances that is so good that it defies description. His meticulous preparation for this part is readily evident in every scene in which he appears. His physical resemblance to the real Gandhi, and the way he mimicked Gandhi’s mannerisms, is so realistic as to be positively eerie. Kingsley’s performance is always sensitive, even slightly understated. Yet there is always present a powerful intensity that conveys the deep spirituality and integrity of the man he so lovingly portrays.
Other performances, although nowhere near as wide-ranging, are no less outstanding. Among them: John Gielgud as the slighly addled, pompous British viceroy, Lord Irwin; Trevor Howard as the British judge whose respect for defendant Gandhi leads him to rise from his seat in deference to the man he is about to sentence to prison; Roshan Seth as Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the staunchly loyal disciple and future Indian Prime Minister; and Rohini Hattangady as Gandhi’s loving wife.
Gandhi is another film that brings a deeper message to its viewers. Here we find the story of one of those rare men in history who always remained faithful to his faith and his principles. Gandhi’s outrage at being treated unjustly could have translated into a life of bitterness, resentment, and fear. Many people confronted with the challenges Gandhi faced have recoiled in fear, or have adapted their principles to the exigencies of the moment. Not so Gandhi! He understood that peace, justice, and equality for all people could best be achieved through non-violent means. As this film so powerfully shows, this gentle man in a homespun loincloth almost single-handedly stood up to the oppressive might of the British Empire with courage and dignity, armed only with an unshakable faith tried in the crucible of apartheid and oppression; and a clearly defined set of core values and principles from which he never wavered, no matter the personal cost.
Other Movie Reviews by Mike Powers:O Brother, Where Art Thou? ; Apollo 13 ; The 5 Best Movies I’ve Ever Detested ; M*A*S*H
