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).