preview

Richard Attenborough 's Film Gandhi

Decent Essays

Richard Attenborough’s film Gandhi (1982) unveils the saga of the greatest Indian freedom fighter and political activist Mahatma Gandhi. Attenborough presents a realistic and chronological record of the events in Gandhi’s life related with Indian Independence Movement. He made Ben Kingsley, the popular British actor enacting the role of Gandhi. The film opens by showing the end of Gandhi, after being shot by a Hindu fanatic and his burial with thousands of people mourning. The burial scene of Gandhi in the film clearly shows it as a national tragedy and Gandhi as the father of the nation. The opening statement of the film, – "No man 's life can be encompassed in one telling. There is no way to give each year its allotted weight, to include each event, each person who helped to shape a lifetime. What can be done is to be faithful in spirit to the record and try to find one 's way to the heart of the man" – shows the respect of Attenborough to Gandhi and a glimpse to the way he is going to present Gandhi’s legendary freedom movement. The director resorts to a flash back mode in this film. After portraying the last episodes in Gandhi’s life, he then moves on to sketch the life of Gandhi as a young barrister in Africa. Gandhi faces the first bitter experience here in Africa while travelling in the first class train compartment. Though he possessed the reservation ticket, he was thrown out of the train due to the fact that the first class is reserved for the Europeans. He had to

Get Access