The Biographical Movie Gandhi - Essay Example

The film throws light on the life of Mahatma Gandhi who led the nonviolent resistance movement against British rule in India which resulted in the independence of India from English imperialism. The movie includes all the main incidents of Gandhi’s life. It starts with the assassination of Gandhi and then playbacks the whole life story. Once in South Africa, he is thrown out of the train despite having the ticket, just because he is an Indian. Thereby Gandhi decides to start a nonviolent protest for the rights of Indians.
After depicting his victory in South Africa, the film illustrates Gandhi’s further life in India. He is urged to return to India and requested to lead the nation toward its independence. Gandhi holds the command of the nation well without compromising his rules and regulations of nonviolence, which is the only reason for saying he was a national hero. Along with his mass supporters, he faces some setbacks of imprisonment during this period.

The movie very willingly represents the various associate movements such as Satyagraha, Dandi march, and Swadeshi movement initiated by Gandhi to tunnel up the British rule. The movie intentionally includes the mass gathering addressed by Gandhi. Eventually gaining the support of Indians he succeeds to get freedom from colonial rule.
One of the notable criticisms against the film was that Attenborough’s Gandhi was a seriously biased, pro-Hindu film. According to the critics, it surreptitiously exalted Hinduism and portrayed Gandhi’s religious convictions as an average Hindu. In the same way, it also abased Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Muslim participation in the freedom movement as if they were religious fanatics who caused the separation of the nation.

However, some think that the film was discreet enough regarding the religious aspects illustrated throughout the life events of Gandhi (Markovits, 29). The same was the idea that I felt when viewing the film Gandhi. Gandhi was not involved in any of the religious practices; instead, his ideology was that of an egalitarian who cherished love above all and was imbued with the scriptures of all religions including, the Gita, Bible, and Quran.
Along with illustrating Gandhi’s life, the movie in-between lights some aspects of Hinduism but does not intend to prove that Gandhi was a Hindu. One of the basic concerns over the non-violence was religious belief; that hurting or killing somebody is a sin. However, this is not exclusively a Hindu concept but the core ideology of every religion. The film shows the audience that after the cremation, Gandhi’s ashes were scattered on the Holy River Ganga, the same practice is followed today in the Hindu religion. However, it does not have any special message to convey other than depicting the real event. The film ends with Gandhi’s wordings that the ways of truth and love had always won. Read More