Gandhi, My Father: Experiments with truth

Over the years, a number of books have been written on the father of our nation – Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Many of these are biographies of his life, mainly centered on his years in India during the freedom struggle. You see, most authors chose to write on the Gandhi who sacrificed a lot for our nation. There were some, though, who wrote about how he grew up, how he was in South Africa and how he was always the same person he always was. Now, we have a movie named Gandhi, My Father which shows us a different Gandhi – his relationship with his family. The film tells us about the strained relationship between the father and son and the great man’s relationship with his wife too.

Rating: 2/5

Akshaye Khanna in Gandhi, My Father

Gandhi, My Father is the story of Harilal (Akshaye Khanna) – Gandhi’s (Darshan Jariwala) eldest son who was never actually loved by his father. From the beginning itself, he was not schooled properly and he blamed his father for this. You see, Gandhi did not want the boy to be westernized. So, as his personal contribution to the Swadeshi movement, his eldest son was never sent to an English medium school. The boy grew up to become a man who was tired of being in his father’s shadow. No matter what he did, he could never create an identity for himself because of his larger than life father. Completely frustrated and tired of this, he adopted a life style which consisted of getting small jobs on the credentials of his powerful and revered father and eventually tricking his employers and making a quick buck. It also shows his failure as a provider and a man as he meted out the same treatment he accused his father of to his own family- his wife (Bhumika Chawla) and his children.

According to me, the movie would have been a remarkable take on Gandhi’s life, save for the fact that it does not have a concrete direction. Meaning, though the plot seemed rather clear written down above, but is not near the same in the movie. Harilal keeps oscillating between declaring his fathers amazing merits as a leader and ridiculing him for being an uncaring father. So, the motive of the movie is vague, unless what Feroze Abbas Khan – the director is actually trying to communicate is that Harilal was himself confused about his feelings for his father. What we end up getting is a sore and immature man, a la Devdas, who blames everyone and everthing for what happens to him. Since we have seen that number once before, it’s not exactly original. Plus the pace is rather slow and monotonous, making the viewer shift around in his seat.

Darshan Jariwala and Shefali Chhaya in Gandhi, My Father

As far as the performances go, Akshaye Khanna has done a good job, but sometimes he really over does the angry son bit. But nevertheless, not bad at all. Jariwala comes across as a good Gandhi; it is quite hard to believe that this was the same guy who was the villain in Aap Ka Suroor. But the one person who comes cross as dynamite is Shefali Chhaya as Kasturba Gandhi. Perfectly under played, she portrays a woman torn between her husband and son. A wonderful performance worth witnessing.

All in all, I would call it an average movie. Recommended for those who are patient and have a yen for “different” movies.

Rating: 2/5

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