“Be the Change you want to see”. Review on Gandhi -Hollywood Movie

“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 share a lifetime. What can be done is to be faithful in spirit to record and try to find one’s way to the heart of man…

Ben Kingsley will always be remembered for his impeccable portrayal of Mahandas Gandhi in 1982. He plays this character with great aplomb and dexterity of a native Indian, as he does in later roles as a Jew, Arab, and an American.

Gandhi was assassinated in January 1948. This is where the movie starts but the true story begins in South Africa in 1893. Gandhi as a young attorney, travels by train. He is dressed in Western attire and sits in a first class car. He is discovered and made to either go to third class where the “colored” sit or to get off the train. He has achieved great success as a scholar and refuses to succumb to the British just because he has brown skin. He is tossed off the train and there begins the story of Mahatma Gandhi and his pursuit of his vision to live as an Indian in his country, simple and without violence.

“It is the simple things that catch your breadth.” Spoken by Gandhi, his life of extravagance made simple in his attire, community duties. He takes great pride in living as a peasant and spinning his own threads to make his own clothes. During his journey, he is blessed with great support from his friends but even more the love and respect of his fellow Indians. This small man begins with a few followers and ends with the majority of India at his side. His belief was that the Indians well outnumber the British 100,000 to 350 million. The Brits are not in control (and they know this) the Indians are. “That is the power of civil resistance.”

So great is his desire to stand up and have respect from the British that rule India, but also of himself. He vehemently opposes violence of any kind and at any cost. “If we obtain freedom by bloodshed, I want no part of it.” He lays down on his meager bed and begins one of several hunger strikes.”

After many years of conflict, jail, and hunger strikes Gandhi achieves his goal, drives the British out of India only to unleash the hatred between the Muslims and Hindu. It is from this that an assassin comes forth and fatally shoots Gandhi. Devastating yes, but Gandhi achieved greatness in his life and was honored in death, not just for Indians (and Pakistanis) but for mankind.

I found myself considering the conflict that we see today in the world with the Middle East and the American occupation there that the void created by the removal of the tyrant leader allows for those who live there to struggle. The Americans who try to impose their own values are much like the British, trying to maintain control that does not belong to them. If Gandhi were alive today, how would he view this conflict and what steps would he take to reconcile the differences?

This movie is supported by a great cast: Candace Bergen as the photographer, Margaret Bourke-White, Sir John Gielgud as Lord Irwin, John Mills as the last Viceroy, Martin Sheenas Walker, the reporter that made many of Gandhi’s feats known to the world and Edward Fox, the General who shot and killed without compulsion over fifteen hundred unarmed Indian civilians. Also a wonderful performance by Rohini Hattangady, as Mrs. Kasturba Gandhi, who supported her husband from the age of thirteen years old when the two first married. Ben Kingsley is truly great and one of my favorite actors of all time. He steps into every role fully prepared and I must say that he truly looked Indian. As a young Gandhi with dark skin, eyes and hair and as an old man. It is not just the makeup that makes us believe he is truly Mahatma Gandhi, it is Kingsley’s movements: The way he tilts his head, closes his eyes, walks with his bamboo cane, sits and spins his thread, his Namaskasana/Prayer pose.

The Spirit of Gandhi is truly achieved with this film by Sir Richard Attenborough. Released so many years ago, I remember seeing this film as a young girl and still today am so touched by the film, its spirit and its great cast. The authenticity of the costumes, the choreography and the historical value are surpassed by none since this film was released over twenty years ago.

“Be the Change you want to see”

~Mahatma Gandhi