Gandhi My Father

Its been a long time since I watched a good movie. Though the first one from Anil Kapoor, it is a remarkable piece of work. A true story, a new facet of the father of the nation, a tale of sacrifice of personal life for nation, a story of every Indian family, a story of a father and son.

The movie brings out the lost son of Father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi, Mohan Das Karamchand Gandhi! Harilal (played by Akshaye Khanna), is the eldest son of Mahatma. He is fighting to establish his own identity while he has been proclaimed Chota Gandhi without any choice of his. His fight for his identity puts him against his father, makes him vulnerable to be used by those who are up against his father. He incessantly keeps trying to establish his own identity, but the failures force him to use his fathers name, Gandhi, to escape from them make him all the more vulnerable.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Darshan Jariwala), an Indian from Porbandar Gujarat, ahs travelled to England for his higher studies, becomes a barrister and then migrates to South Africa to practice law. But discrimination and oppression he faces everywhere makes him rise to the cause of social justice and dedicate his life and family to the same cause. And to assist him, he calls up his eldest son to become a forerunner in his revolution against the government in South Africa. And in his desire to put his children to the cause and need of society, this father forgets that his son might want something else, his son may have dreams of his own, he might want to study and become a barrister just like him.

And the son, Harilal, he perhaps has forgotten that his father has dedicated his life to the society and has many people looking up to him. He is not able to accept that his father is not just his father, his father is now the father of many, he is the Father of the Nation, he no longer is Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi; he is Mahatma Gandhi.

The movie portrays what Gandhi family went through while fighting for the nations freedom, what it meant for Mahatma, and what it meant for Ba(Shefali Shah). A woman divided between her son and husband. And the struggles of another woman, Harilals wife Gulab (Bhumika Chawla), struggle to support her husband in his attempts to success, struggle to keep her husband on the right track, struggle to raise a family of four children.

The movie does complete justice to all the characters. Though the movie revolves around Mahatma Gandhi and Harilal Gandhi, others still have sufficient to display their talent. It is beautifully filmed movie, definitely a masterpiece.

Movie Rating:

Music Rating: