Sponsor PFCOne
(2 votes, average: 4 out of 5)
Loading ...
Gandhi My Father
“Gandhi se bada iss desh mein koi nahi hai…….”
“main Gandhiji ka nalayak beta hun…”
The promos did strike a chord and knowing the director was the director of the banned play in Mumbai…Watching this made it the top priority on the “to do list” this Friday. Came back rather unquenched. Feeling….what a potentially great story to say from the chapters of the Mahatma’s life. The human side of the superhero which all seem busy exploring this year. When it came to explore those very dark passages of our very own superhero the Mahatma….they still remain unexplored.
Hariral can be related to anyone. I too sometimes feel the burden of carrying my father’s “anushasan” and “ekagrata”…..the pride and the burden of being his son..but that’s just restricted to the realms of my family bloodline……Harilal had an extended one….the whole nation. It’s no disgrace that he succumbed to it…..but Harilal did make some very very poignant statements in the play which enlightened us on the fact that Gandhi was human after all……Gandhi My Father just missed that…..for me.
No doubt a brave attempt to bring this piece of the Mahatma’s life on to celluloid….Kuddos Anil Kapoor and team for that…..but sadly the Mahatma has again been protected and preserved….what set out to separate the man from the image…sadly just stuck to scraping the surface leaving the image to linger more than the man.
Yes the film does touch upon the fact that Gandhi was harsh on his son and maybe a little distant than what Harilal would have liked him to be. Incidents of Gandhi opposing Harilal’s marriage and not sending him to his dream destination….England when he could have by availing a scholarship giving to the Gandhi family by a philanthropist.
Harilal was a part of Gandhi’s initial experiments with truth. Maybe he rushed in too soon. Maybe the experiment was forced on his son killing his dream of following his father’s footsteps of being a barrister creating a turmoil in his life and straining the relationship for ever and setting Harilal on a path of self destruction.
The film is almost shot like a play with the “entry” and “exit” structure. The film did have it’s moments. The train scene which has been mentioned in all reviews did work for me too….but on the whole the dual I was waiting for had somehow been forfeited by the makers in the favour of the Mahatma….the Mahatma was declared winner….the film lost. The screenplay left me dry somehow as it seemed more of a parallel life story of the Mahatma and his son than a cohesive father-son battle, which the play was so successful in capturing.
A brave attempt I am tempted to say but somehow it leaves me with much to desire.
10 Responses to “Gandhi My Father”
Leave a Reply
Our Comments Policy : The following kinds of comments are troll capped, blocked and/or commenter's identity reported publicly: Verbal abuse, personal attacks, hate statements, spam, trolls, advertising. Please assist us in keeping the comments clean. Use the contact form to let us know if you find unwarranted comments on PFC. Thank you.
- Scattered Thoughts
- The Legend Of Johnny Depp
- Chalti ka Naam Gaadi : Fun unlimited
- Kishore Kumar, Unravelled.
- Confessions of a Movie Maniac
- Confessions of a Movie M
- 3 films, 3 characters, 3 actresses : 3
- Marathi me kehte hain ki… SH
- Hello, Review: “Bhagwan Ke Liye Mujhe Chhod Do&#x
- Reasons- Why I liked Satya
Recent Posts:
Hottest Today:
I think it depends on whether u accept Gandhi was Mahatma on the first place. This movie shows that Gandhi did treat his son based on what he thought was the right thing to do.
For example, the scholarship issue. There is no indication in Harilal’s history so far at that juncture to say he deserved it. Harilal was passionate to follow his father’s footsteps but was he going to be able to? Gandhi may have figured that that is not where Harilal’s strength is.
Gandhi found in Harilal a potentially great non-violent fighter, or satyagrahi. And when Harilal did put his effort in that role in Phoenix, he did a good job and won accolades. So there is all reason to believe that what Gandhi thought was proper for his son, was indeed right.
However Harilal just blindly wanted to become Barrister but exactly why?
He couldn’t assess his strengths and weakness, but Gandhi as a father did. And it may be also true that Gandhi may have thought formal education is not the best way to go for his sons. And that school of thought necessarily needn’t be categorized into either Mahatma or a bad father. It is just that Gandhi believed so and acted upon that ideal.
With the case of Harilal, Gandhi’s ideology would’ve worked perfectly, considering Harilal’s strengths and weaknesses as a person.
It’s great to see how much emotional turmoil Gandhi had to carry around with him from his personal life and still he managed to focus on his dharma.
Gandhi had his ideologies and tried his best based on that, towards his son and towards his nation. Neither of them unfortunately didn’t end up understanding his thoughts and ideals properly.
But then as it says in Bhagavad Geeta,
Karmanye wa dhikaraste
ma phaleshu kadachana
(You are only to perform your duty
without an eye on their fruits)
-prasanth
whatever said n done,i still want to catch the film. ya vasan…teh promos looks intersting. these days movies r so bad that dont even remember which was the last hindi film i saw in theatres. atleast here’s a film that i want to c.
prasanth what you say was not there in the film. All the scenes had elder gandhi announcing who is being sent to UK and harilal would exit the stage.
I don’t think any research went into the film. The director didn’t even read the two books he gives credit to. He just took the play he directed as the basis which in turn was based on the hindi version , which was based on the marathi adaptation. And it clearly shows in the film.
Film is not comprehensive still it endeavours to encapsulate many aspects of Gandhi’s life against the backdrop of independence struggle.Gandhi’s remark towards the end of the film sums up his life’s disappointments where he goes on to say that in his life he could not make two people understand his viewpoint and beliefs–one Mohammed Ali Jinnah(whom he terms as his kathiawari friend) and another Harilal–his son..No doubt there was so much that remained unexplored and created a vacuum in audiences’ mind still the whole effort is laudable.I was really surprised to watch Akshaye Khanna acting the part so well–especially his alcholic,stupor,stoned scences.
K2, if you are referring to the portion about scholarship, there definitely was a conversation between Gandhi and Ba which pointed out Harilal was not an exemplary student. Also there were many instances in the Phoenix portion of the movie, where Gandhi found Harilal to be a very strong satyagrahi and conveyed that to many people and Harilal himself.
Yes I do agree that the movie didn’t spit out everything in the open directly, but definitely it touched upon these facts.
History tackles a lot in the books that cannot be brought onto film simply because we dot have that amount of screen time. So, the script always does have to have those vignettes of history that would spell the tone of the film. Also, we need to be very specific about what we would like to put forth being wishy - washy about the facts just does not cut ice.
This is what exactly happens in GMF. Feroz could have gone the whole hog..shown the angst of Harilal as much as he had shown in the play. He chose not to…we would never know whether it was due to the production pressure or he chose not to do it himself!
The film is well made…some scenes do stand out..easily Shefali’s and Akshay’s best…But…!!!!
Just returned after watching the film… and was a little bored. was expecting something much more fiery and moving. Somehow I felt like something is missing. I thought the style was a little bit like a serial and a lil bit like a play. The constant fade in fade out and the transition shots were getting into my nerves after a point.
Loved Jariwala and Shefali. Thought that Akshay too was very controlled.
Hi Vasan: There is nothing about the son in Gandhi, My Father. It is all about Gandhiji, the father. In fact, the film failed to depict whatever that went wrong with the father-son duo. If you watch the film with no story inhibitions
Gandhi, My Father- Akshaye Khanna
we will see how much bollywood has matured, in the award functions next year. by counting the number of awards ‘gandhi my father’ get.
father son battle -
do father and son battle !!!
the moment a son come face to face with his father to slog it out. it is over. for son father is no longer a father. the moment son looses his respect for father. father is gone. than there could be anything even physical fight.
a father is father when son respects him. a son is a son when father respects him. when a father looses his respect for his son. he is no longer a son in real meaning. ask any father how he feels about a son he can not respect.
both father and son should respect each other to be father and son.
on this front ‘gandhi my father’ is succesful. never once harilal says anything degrading about gandhi. and gandhi never says anything degrading about harilal. they remain father and son till end. and that’s why in dead harilal’s pocket a photo of gandhi is found.
than what’s the conflict?
the conflict is of reality.
and reality is relative. reality changes with time. what was right for father is no longer meaninful for his son. what is meaningful for son, father cannot understand that.
the conflict is father forcing his realities on son.
and mind you, father is totally honest doing this. he is doing what he deemed to be right. and when son forget this, he looses his respect for father, and relationship becomes a business of convinence.
as long as son realizes that his father is honest, he respects him. harilal respected his father, and gandhi was a honest father.
do you think that it is gauranteed that harilal would have lived a comfortable life, if not for hi s father? who knows, harilal’s life sitll has shaped the way it did. even if gandhi would have granted his every wish. but than gandhi would not have been honest.
gandhi is not responsible for harilal. only harilal is responsible for his life. and he was a real son. worthy to be the son of gandhi. he lived for his realities. though they did not end in fairytale. but that’s not the point.
imagine that harilal has become a succesful busisness man. do you think the conflict between him and his father would have vanished. no, the conflict would have been there and the respect for eachother and love also.
that’s why being a father is not easy. it is this relationship where a father learns the lession of a life time,that reality changes. and a father is worthy to be called a father only when he accepts this fact. if a father do not recognize it and go on forcing his reality on his son is not a father ,he could be anything a tyrant, a dictator but not a father. and a son who do not have the guts to assert his reality is not a real son. he is stupid. and a parasite.
only an intelligent man could be a father, and only an intelligent son could be a son.
gandhi was a real father and harilal was a real son.
no matter what feroz khan would have done. it is impossible to do full justice to this kind of story. there would always be a scope for imporvement. cinema has its own limits. nonetheless gandhi my father is an achievment.
if anil kapoor didn’t get every single award for producer. bollywood is stupid. there are very few movies who challenge the limit of the medium of cinema the way gandhi my father did. ^:)^:x>:d<@};-