Gandhi (1982)

Directed by: Richard Attenborough | 188 minutes | drama, biography, history | Actors: Ben Kingsley, Candice Bergen, Edward Fox, John Gielgud, Trevor Howard, John Mills, Martin Sheen, Ian Charleson, Athol Fugard, Günther Maria Halmer, Saeed Jaffrey, Geraldine James, Alyque Padamsee, Amrish Puri, Roshan Seth

“Actually, I didn’t want to be a director at all,” said Richard Attenborough. I just wanted to shoot that movie.” For the actor, ‘Gandhi’ was a mission. Attenborough had to endure twenty years of hardship, ridicule and personal financial risk to fulfill his great dream: to recreate the life of Mohandas Kharamchand Gandhi (1869 – 1948) in such a way that both a Western and an Eastern public understand the spiritual importance of the Mahatma .

Attenborough’s plan took shape as early as 1962. He was especially inspired by Gandhi’s statement: “It has always puzzled me how someone can feel flattered by the humiliation of his fellow man.” Attenborough was already a producer at the time and would not direct his first film until 1969 (“Oh! What a Lovely War!”). Somewhere in his eighteen-year struggle to get funding for ‘Gandhi’, he was advised to hire a commercially attractive director like Fred Zinneman (‘High Noon’, ‘From Here to Eternity’) or David Lean (‘Lawrence of Arabia’, ‘ Doctor Zhivago”). A string of writers ventured to script before John Briley masterfully captured the essence of Gandhi’s life and work.

Of course, generations of actors passed in review in all those years. The lead roles included Alec Guiness, Dirk Bogarde, Albert Finney, Tom Courtenay, Robert DeNiro, Dustin Hoffman, John Hurt and Richard Burton. In the end, the choice fell on the virtually unknown Ben Kingsley, who also happened to inherit some distinctive facial features from his Indian father. Kingsley devoted himself entirely to his role. He lost weight, learned yoga, learned to spin cotton, and made a valiant effort to live like Gandhi. He was extraordinarily convincing as the Mahatma and deservedly won the Academy Award for Best Actor that year. The rest of the gargantuan cast included a striking number of stage and film greats of the time, including John Gielgud, Martin Sheen and Trevor Howard.

Briley’s screenplay begins in 1948 with the assassination of Gandhi and the state funeral, then jumps back to his years as a budding lawyer in South Africa. For example, you can see how he demonstrates in 1893 against racial discrimination in that country. The film then follows the biographical milestones of Gandhi’s struggle against British colonial rule and for a fusion of Indian society and culture. Ironically, Gandhi’s passionate belief in nonviolent resistance often leads to violence and even death, not to mention long prison terms for the freedom fighter himself. Many scenes were filmed at the precise historical locations. For the funeral footage recorded in Rajpath, no fewer than eleven camera teams and about 400,000 (!) extras were needed.

‘Gandhi’ is a grand refutation of the maxim that films with long lead times usually fall short because the freshness of the original inspiration has been lost. Immediately after its premiere, the film received critical acclaim and resonance around the world. The only point of criticism could be the length of the film (more than three hours), but that’s part of an epic like this. The film received eight Oscars – at the time a record number surpassed only by ‘Ben Hur’ (1959) – including Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Picture. What clearly pleased Attenborough more than all those awards was that at least part of the audience felt enriched by meeting Gandhi thanks to his film portrait. In his later career as director of inspired film biographies (including ‘Chaplin’ about Charlie Chaplin and ‘Shadowlands’ about CS Lewis), he would always be measured by his performance with ‘Gandhi’.