Gandhi, My Father

September 14, 2007

Hi Khushies,

I saw the movie, 'Gandhi, My Father' last weekend at the Indian Film Festival, and I was stunned both by the content of the movie and at how well-made it is. Do see it if you get a chance. A couple of Khushies saw it last weekend, and I'm sure there will be a number of Khushies interested in seeing it this weekend, so it won't be too difficult to get a group together.

It shows a little-known, less-than-laudatory aspect of Gandhi's personality. Gandhi's sexual experiments are well known because Gandhi sought to harness and restrict his own sexual desire, and publicized the failed attempts in his autobiography. But Gandhi's mistreatment of his
own sons - particularly his eldest - by denying them formal education is not as well-known. That's depicted in the movie.

I'm not a big fan of patriotic or freedom-fighter type movies, so I did not have high expectations of the movie. But I was blown off. (No pun intended...)

Earlier this week, I saw the 1996 Shyam Benegal movie, "The Making of the Mahatma". Although that movie gives a good historical narrative of Gandhi's freedom struggles in South Africa, and has some overlap with the new "Gandhi, My Father" movie, the Benegal movie comes nowhere close to the new movie in terms of acting, setup, everything...

If you can't see the movie only because you have other plans for the weekend, that's easy. Just cancel your other plans!

I seldom see movies (in theaters: sometimes; on TV: never). Because of that, I tend to like whichever movie that I see, no matter which one it is! But the new Gandhi movie is a notch above the rest; it's a first above equals. Gandhi, My Father is clearly the best movie that I've seen this year, and Bourne Ultimatum has been the crappiest!

--Ninad