Strictly for Classes... Review on Gandhi My Father

Mohandas Karmachand Gandhi, Father of the Nation.  He is omnipresent in India, be it Currency notes, government offices or happening place of any big city(MG Road, you know).  In India, even if someone reasonably badmouth about him, he will be criticized from every direction. He has projected as next to Perfect Human being.

So, when movie comes about Gandhiji as a failed father, naturally people want to see how, why he failed.

Story

Major events of Gandhiji's life are known to all of us.  He was a barrister, practicing a law in Africa. Harilal is his eldest son along with three other sons.

Harilal was away in India, when he wrote a letter to Bapu about his marriage with Gulab, Bapu was disappointed.  Harilal got married, came to Africa, later Bapu himself made arrangement to bring Gulab Africa. Harilal wanted to go to England to study law like his father.  Bapu was capable of sending him, but he gave couple of opportunities to others.  Initially Harilal supported Bapu in his movement against Goras in Africa, went to jail couple of times but then fed up with all this.  He wanted to do something for his own life, own family n of course fulfill his dream of become barrister.  Bapu wanted Harilal to accompany him in his fight against injustice. Finally, first Gulab n then Harilal went back to India.

Harilal unsuccessfully attempted to study. He shifted to Calcutta, tried to do some Garment Buisness but again failed miserable.  People gave him money on name of Gandhi, but he messed up.  Gandhiji also came back to India.  He was always ready to accept Harilal back and wanted him to join him.  Gulab left Harilal and went back to Gujarat from Calcutta. Harilal joined Gandhiji for sometime. But again he tried to do some business with group of Industrialists n failed.  He borrowed money from people on the name of Gandhi.  Failed multiple times, he converted himself n followed Islam, started eating non-veg.  But again due to his bad habits, landed up in jail.  He came in touch with Dayanand Saraswati n again reverted back to Hinduism.

During all this time, either Bapu or Ba invited him to join Ashram, but he didn't accept.  Meanwhile, fight for independence became stronger, Ba died, India get independence with partitions, Bapu assassinated n finally after five months of  Bapu's assassination Harillal  also died as an unknown beggar in some hospital.

*Comments

Generally I don't like to narrate story but here I intentionally did otherwise.  If you have observed, "failed, messed up, bad habits" all these terms are associated with Harilal only.  Director has not shown a single positive point about Harilal's personality. I guess director team also don't want to land up in any controversy by showing something bad about Bapu.  That's where movie fails.  This movie is suppose to be an unbiased insight between father-son relationship, but it is not the case.

So when movie ends, you feel that Harilal was a complete looser and Bapu came out clean.  But then it's director's point of view, he is completely allowed to show us whatever he wants to.  Here, the director is very selective.

This is Anil Kapoor's first movie as a Producer and let me congratulate him for selecting such a non-commercial subject.

Akshaye Khanna as Harilal Gandhi is just superb.  He is very expressive, watch out for his eyes.  This is his best performance till date.

Darshan Jariwala as Mahatma Gandhi is good.  He looks like an enlarged version of Gandhiji in initial reels but as movie goes ahead, he looks more n more like Gandhiji. Anyway, performing role of Gandhi is any actor's dream.

Bhumika Chawla as Gulab has small but significant role n she did full justice to her role.

For me best performance is from Kastur Ba.  Shefali Shah is just perfect.  In every single scene, her expressions, dialogue deliver, body language everything is just perfect.  I want her to win at least Critics' award.

After Interval, movie is shifted from father-son relationship to out fight for freedom.  They have used black-and-white scenes(original and modified) in very efficient manner.  Technical Team has done enough research to give justice to the subject.  You can see this movie to get more familiar with our fight for freedom, (Personally I don't agree with Gandhiji's non-violence formula) or to see amazing chemistry between Bapu n Ba and of course a different subject.

This movie has been made using heart, heart and only heart.  Movie has generous use of English(without subtitles), has a kind of documentary feel and that's why this movie is a strictly no-no for masses.  For classes, it's a must see.

One thing I respect about Gandhiji is his honesty to himself.  He went to any extreme if he believed in that thing, n of course some memorable preachings like:

"An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind. "

God bless all

nayan