Richard Attenboroughs Gandhi - Essay Example

? Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi number Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi Gandhi, directed by Sir Richard Attenborough, is one of the most important movies to have come out in the 1980s. It talks of the story of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, known better as Mahatma Gandhi. The film chronicles his life from the times that he was a lawyer in his youth, in South Africa, to his death, at the age of seventy nine. The movie talks of the importance of the man in the history of India. The movie describes the events that led to the development of Gandhi’s philosophies that were to shake the very foundations of the largest empire on earth. The movie also serves to reveal the atrocities of the colonial enterprise in India. Thus, not only does the movie reflect the anti-colonial feelings of the intelligentsia of the world of the seventies and the eighties, it also shows the audience the farsightedness of Mahatma Gandhi, who realised the economic effects of the enterprise on the people of the country. Several aspects of the life of the man are discussed in the story, which do not find mention in conventional narratives. In this respect, the film is different from other films on the man, in that it does not seek to glorify him mindlessly. It talks of the Mahatma as a human being who had several weaknesses of his own. The film talks of the man in his capacities as a politician, a social reformer, a husband and a friend. It also talks of the contributions of Christian missionaries in the development of his philosophy of life. Many of these aspects of his life were untold before the release of this movie. As far as this is concerned, the movie can also, in many ways, be considered to be a historical document. The movie begins with the assassination of Gandhi that is followed by a narration of the events of his life that preceded it. The opening serves to highlight the irony of the life of the Mahatma where he is killed by the very people whom he had served. The event has many more nuances to it than the scope of the movie allows it to depict. The rise of Hindutva and the clamor for a Hindu nation which Gandhi had rejected had led to the growth to dissatisfaction among some sections of the Hindu society. Since the movie seeks to depict the life of Gandhi, it does not go into these details. It reveals the fissures within the society that Gandhi had sought to unite and free. The failure of non-violence as a philosophy is hinted at here. In a society as complex as the one that one saw in India during the 1940s where people of various races and religions lived together, there could have been no one-stop solution. This also is consistent with the movie’s aim of depicting Gandhi as a human and not as almost a divine messiah, as he is often perceived by historians and journalists alike. The film then moves on to Gandhi’s life in South Africa where he was a lawyer. The episode where he is thrown off a train because of his racial belonging is one of the most important episodes of Gandhi’s life and he himself had often said so. The seeds of revolt that had begun to develop within him could be traced to that event. He understood that discrimination based on race needed to be stopped for the social and economic development of people of color. The subsequent developments in South Africa where Gandhi mobilizes the people of color to protest against the inequalities in the society is documented in a manner that is dramatic and may not have adhered to exact descriptions of what happened during those times. However, the larger details of the event are according to what historians have written about it. The origin of the theories of non-violence that Gandhi had developed was in South Africa where Gandhi had seen the cruel face of colonialism and the violence that went with it. He gave this form of protest and resistance the name Satyagraha. This form was dedicated to the understanding of truth and the movie reveals the paths that Gandhi takes in his quest for this truth. The different events that took place in his life that were important in the development of these theories are documented in the movie. Gandhi’s life as a husband is also something that is not talked about in the same way as it is, in the movie. In the middle of his professions of non-violence, he violently forces his wife to espouse his ideas regarding caste and the upliftment of the lower castes. Kasturba Gandhi protests in the movie and this makes him realise the limitations of his own self in the practise of his own philosophical tenets. The importance of this episode lies in the fact that it reveals one stage that Gandhi had to go through during his quest for self-control. He was to adopt measures that would be shocking later on in his life so as to practise restraint and attain a certain amount of self-control. This event however, as shown in the movie, marks a beginning of this process whereby he realises that the process of social transformation as he envisioned it had to begin from a transformation of the individual. The movie serves to show that his wife too was not an unexceptional woman as she becomes the catalyst to many of the events that shape his life. There have been several works that discuss the role of Kasturba Gandhi in the life of Gandhi. Her importance in the development of Satyagraha and the subsequent developments in the life of Gandhi has been well documented by historians and the importance that the movie gives to the role of Gandhi’s wife depicts this reality. Gandhi personality as a friend too is explored in the movie and this can be seen through the role of Reverend Charles Freer Andrews. Andrews is another catalyst in Gandhi’s decision to enter Indian politics and to make a difference in the lives of other Indians. His role in the movie is also to reveal the intimate relationship that Gandhi was capable of as a friend. He is devoted to his friend and is humble enough to accept their advice. The movie thus, also reveals the role that Christian missionaries and Christian tenets had to play in the development of Gandhi’s theories of non-violence. The irony of the coloniser’s culture being used against them has been looked into by several historians and sociologists. The movie provides a visual representation of these relationships of Gandhi and this reveals the intense research that had gone into creating the movie. Gandhi is not just a politician and saintly figure in the movie as is often depicted by popular culture and even certain records of history. He is a complex amalgamation of the effects of several cultures and people. His theories were consequently, a result of such effects and they reflected the cultures that they were from. Gandhi talked of the need for a new perspective on the relations between the different communities in the world. A film based on the life of Gandhi is relevant in today’s society not just to make people aware of the life of the great man but also to make people realize the value of his contributions to the way we understand society. The manner in which he tackled the question of caste and race without resorting to violence is something that politicians and social reformers of today need to learn from. The movie was released at a point of time when the United States of America and the USSR were locked in the Cold War where both of them sought ascendancy over the other. While this did not lead to any direct conflict, many conflicts between other countries were orchestrated and taken part in by these two major players. At a point of time when the possibility of peace was only a distant one, Attenborough seeks, through this movie, to remind the world that peace is possible. Not only is peace possible, it can also be achieved despite the roadblocks that people have to face while in pursuit of peace. The movie makes it clear that Gandhi’s methods were developed as a result of a lot of strife and pain. It is however, the willingness to go through such pain and also to accept influences from other cultures that makes peace possible. This is probably the reason as to why that side of Gandhi which was against the adoption of too many foreign influences is not a part of the message of the film. While the movie does not give out any explicit message, it definitely is in favour of the methods of protest that were practised by Mahatma Gandhi. The importance that is given to the foreign influences on Gandhi also reveal the intent of the movie to make people accept what they considered the other and embrace a multicultural ethos that Gandhi may not completely have endorsed himself. Works Cited Gandhi. Richard Attenborough. Columbia Pictures, 1982. DVD. Charles Freers Andrews was an important influence on Gandhi and was also a good friend of his. The movie shows him during his youth when he travelled with Gandhi in India. Accessed from http://www.fredsakademiet.dk/ordbog/aord/a150.htm This picture shows Gandhi during his days as a young lawyer in South Africa. His entire appearance underwent a massive change as he developed a philosophy of simple living. Accessed from http://explow.com/mahatma This picture shows Gandhi during the famous Dandi March during which he broke the British Empire’s Salt Laws. It shook the British Empire as Gandhi had managed to garner the support of a large number of Indians cutting across religious and caste lines. Accessed from http://topnews.in/usa/now-dandi-march-us-against-corruption-india-28050 This is a poster of Gandhi. It shows Mahatma Gandhi in the midst of the people who loved and revered him. The description of the movie makes it clear that the aim of the film was to make people aware of the message of peace. Accessed from http://www.impawards.com/1982/gandhi.html Read More