Many Gandhis on Our Screens
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08 hindustantimes YEARS ON 1869 - 2019 PERSPECTIVE RATNOTTAMA SENGUPTA MANY GANDHIS ON OUR SCREENS n Veteran actor, Rohini Hattangadi, at her residence in Mumbai. AALOK SONI / HT INTERVIEW A young woman n Gandhi film MOVING IMAGE Through the years, filmmakers have been director, Richard inspired by MK Gandhi and the ideas that he espoused as a Attenborough, who played an (left) and leader of the freedom struggle. Each generation has actor, Ben Kingsley, who responded to the Mahatma differently, picking up various played the elements of his vast influence over our collective psyche Mahatma, on aging Kasturba set, 1982. ©COLUMBIA/ Sonal Kalra tough. We were supposed to research our COURTESY EVERETT n [email protected] characters. While Ben found a lot of litera- ALAMY STOCK PHOTO ture on Mahatma Gandhi, I only found two n her tastefully done up apartment in books on Kasturba — Hamari Ba by Van- Mumbai’s Bandra, it is humbling to mala Parikh, and Ba Aur Bapu Ki Sheetal I watch actor Rohini Hattangadi juggle Chhaya Mein by Sushila Nayar. Both between playing host to us and doing books were very personal recollections of ohandas Karamchand Gan- curate film festivals on Gandhi in Delhi (Octo- scourge of untouchability. Pratap, a Brahmin n A still from her own makeup. The 68-year-old is the the authors, and, therefore, limited. dhi. Gandhiji. Mahatma. ber 2018 and January 2019), Kolkata (August- and Kasturi, from a lower caste, are ill-fated Mahatma first Indian actor to win a BAFTA Bapu. One man, so many October 2019), and Singapore (begins Friday lovers in Achhut Kanya (1936), the Bombay Gandhi: 20th (awarded by the British Academy of Film After he read Gandhi’s biography by Louis Fis- lives! and continues till September 30). Talkies film by German director, Franz Osten. Century Prophet. and Television Arts) and has also won a cher (The Life of Mahatma Gandhi), Sir Rich- M Any mention of Gandhi Gandhi inspired millions to rise against the Perhaps the first reformist film on the Indian Gandhi is seen National Award. But the role that she is ard spent more than 18 years trying to make makes us think of Richard imperialists, he cut across divisions of caste screen, it was most likely inspired by Harijan, with a child most well known for landed on her plate this film. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru cleared the Attenborough’s definitive 1982 biopic that and religion, he spoke not for one country but first published by Gandhi from Yerwada jail aboard the SS when she was 27. She played the character film, but after he died, the project was put on covered Gandhi’s life from 1893 to 1948. These for humanity. This made him a difficult model of Pune in 1933. The director of the Tamil film, Rajputana on his of Kasturba Gandhi in Richard Attenbor- the back burner. Indira Gandhi backed the film 55 years depicted are strewn with abiding to emulate, as we see in Gandhi My Father Balyogini (1936), about a Brahmin widow and way to London ough’s iconic 1982 film, Gandhi. Hattan- and got the National Film Development Cor- images: Gandhi floating away his chaddar in (2007), based on his troubled relationship with her child given shelter by a lower caste ser- for the Round gadi revisits her memories of working in poration to give funds. It had taken much for the river, for a shivering woman to cover her- his son, Harilal. Feroze Abbas Khan said in a vant, was declared an outcaste by Brahmins. Table this iconic cinematic adaptation of his life. the film to finally come on the floors. self with; his dignified grieving when he loses director’s note when his film was screened in Similarly, Mala Pilla (1938) in Telugu dealt Conference. An edited version. Again very naïve of me, I was not at all his wife; his determination as he sets out on the festivals I had curated, “Since most filmgo- with an intercaste relationship that continues Journalist and aware of these things. During the shoot, I the Dandi march; his insistence on not resort- ers are young, we were advised to project the to attract social opprobrium to this day. writer A K A young graduate from National School of realised that Sir Richard knew Gandhi ing to violence in the face of lathi charge; Gan- clash between the younger generation of Thyagabhoomi (1939) was produced at the Chettiar Drama who’s more interested in theatre than backwards. I would struggle with calculat- dhi practising Islam and Christianity rituals Hopefuls and the older generation of Dog- height of India’s freedom movement travelled over cinema gets a call from Richard Attenborough ing how old Kasturba would have been for as lessons in tolerance. mas.” Khan chose to depict the complex rela- expressly to glorify the Mahatma’s ideals. 100,000 km to play a much older character. What was your significant scenes like the one on burning One of the earliest films on Gandhi was an tionship between a principled father and a son Protagonist Sambu Sastri invites ostracism across India and first reaction? foreign clothes, but before I could consult American feature documentary, titled turned into a hand tool of fanatics. For, “These by sheltering Harijans in his home after a the world to Well, in the beginning, it was very naïve of the script, he would know the answer. Mahatma Gandhi: 20th Century Prophet, were real people whose struggle is instructive cyclone. The orthodox Hindus excommuni- collect video me, but I didn’t know the scale of the film. When I read the biography, it was reveal- made in 1953. Another documentary, made in for our lives.” cate him. His daughter comes away from a footage for the For me it was just a role in an English film. ing how little we as Indians knew about 1968, covered every decade of his existence. “He has demonstrated,” Albert Einstein failed marriage, joins the freedom movement documentary. Because of my theatre background, I was Gandhi. I know that there was visible But a better insight was provided by Shyam had said after Gandhi’s assassination, “that a and gets arrested. The film, financed and dis- This footage called for interview by Sir Richard — at opposition to making the film. There were Benegal’s The Making of a Mahatma/ powerful human following can be assembled tributed by the movie mogul, SS Vasan, before was first that time he was Sir Richard, he became groups that said, “Gandhi par film kaise Mohan Se Mahatma Tak (1996). Based on Fat- not only through cunning of political manoeu- he created Gemini Pictures, was banned by screened in Lord afterwards — at the Centaur hotel. It bana sakte hain (How can anyone make a ima Meer’s Apprenticeship of a Mahatma, it vres, but through the cogent example of a mor- the British government. India, and later was arranged by another theatre artist, film on Gandhi?)”. Both Richard and Ben focused on his 21 years in South Africa where ally superior conduct of life.” A clutch of films The New Indian Cinema of the 1970s and produced in Dolly Thakore, his liaison here. I told him had personal security guards with them he used satyagraha with enormous success. tackle this idea. In Girish Kasaravalli’s Kur- 1980s, too, focused on caste, as evidenced by Hollywood, USA, that I’ve only done three films, but I have a throughout the shoot. Mohandas of Kathiawad had an impact on mavatara (2012), a clerk with a striking Samskara (1970) and Sadgati (1988). Pattabhi- in 1953. theatre background. So our entire conver- several leaders. Naturally, many biopics resemblance to Gandhi is asked to enact him rama Reddy’s Samskara , based on UR Anan- FILM STILL sation was around theatre, with no men- What was it like on the sets? Was it very dif- depict that. Sardar (1993), Ketan Mehta’s por- in a tele serial. But when he starts thinking thamurthy’s novel, led to much churning tion of the film. The next day, Dolly wired ferent from the previous three films you had trait of Vallabhbhai Patel; Jamil Dehlavi’s and behaving like Gandhi, he is silenced. In within orthodox society, prompting the me and I went to the grocer and called her, done by then? Jinnah (1998), where Christopher Lee played Ananth Mahadevan’s Gour Hari Dastaan: Madras High Court to ban the film. It was the as I didn’t have a phone. She told me that I Oh, yes. The detailing on the sets of Gan- the founder of Pakistan; Shyam Benegal’s The Freedom File (2014), the protagonist first Kannada film in independent India to suf- have been selected to go to England for a dhi was very minute. There was immense encapsulation of Subhas Chandra Bose’s becomes a butt of jokes when he resorts to sat- fer this fate. screen test (...) We were given a scene to do discipline and nothing was taken for struggle for an Azad Hind, Netaji – The For- yagraha in Bombay, to get what is his right: a No writing about cinema’s engagement so, where Kasturba, in South Africa, granted. If Gandhi used a certain specific gotten Hero (2005); Babasaheb (2000), on the Tamra Patra honouring his participation in with Gandhi is complete without recognising refuses to clean the latrine [inside the kind of utensil, then it had to be on the set. I life of B.R. Ambedkar; and even Viceroy’s the freedom struggle. In Babar Naam Gan- filmmakers’ fascination for his assassin, Nat- Phoenix Farm settlement].