MOVIE REVIEW

SOCIOLOGY I

GANDHI(1982)

SUBMITTED TO:

PROFESSOR NAVNEETA MAJUMDER

SUBMITTED BY:

HETVI PATEL

27

FACULTY OF LAW

GLS UNIVERSITY
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I, PATEL HETVI, hereby express my gratitude to NAVNEETA MAJUMDER, professor, FACULTY
OF LAW GLS UNIVERSITY, for giving me the opportunity to work on the project entitled ‘MOVIE
REVIEW- GANDHI (1982)’.
 DECLARATION

I, PATEL HETVI, hereby declare that the project entitled ‘GANDHI (1982)- MOVIE REVIEW’
submitted to FACULTY OF LAW GLS UNIVERSITY for SEMESTER-1 is a record of original
work done under the guidance of NAVNEETA MAJUMDER, Professor, FACULTY OF LAW GLS
UNIVERSITY, Gujarat.

- PATEL HETVI
SEMESTER 1
2021-2026
BA. LLB. [HONS.]
Gandhi (1982) movie review.

With a personality so great and stature so big, encapsulating Gandhi in a film of 3 hours is a
challenging task. Gandhi is the great Indian leader who is in need of no introduction. Gandhi has been
portrayed as a self-searching human rather than almighty God in the movie.

About the movie

Gandhi is a periodical biography of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, popularly known as ‘Mahatma

Gandhi’. It is directed and produced by Richard Attenborough and stars Ben Kingsley in the lead role.
The movie was released in the year 1982 and was a huge success. Infact, it is one of the highest-
grossing films of all time in India.

Plot

The movie starts with depiction of assassination of Mahatma by Nathuram Godse when he was going
for the evening prayer on 30th January 1948. After that, it goes into flashback to show various
important events in Bapu’s life.

Firstly, it shows how Gandhi was thrown off from the train when whites in South Africa saw him
travelling in the first-class compartment of the train. This particular event is the start of Gandhi’s
political career after which he protested against British Government in South Africa demanding equal
rights to Indians residing in South Africa. This led to his his popularity among Indians

After coming back to India in the year 1915, he was considered as a hero who fought for Indians in
South Africa. His political teacher and the person who has probably most amount of influence in
Gandhi's life, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, asks him to travel across India and know more about people
and their problems. He was urged to take fight for national independence (home-rule or swaraj) by
many leaders at that time. He indeed did that.

After that, many important events like non-cooperation movement, Jallianwala Bagh massacare,
Dandi March, Swadeshi movement are highlighted in the movie. The depiction of scenes of
Jallianwala Bagh massacre will surely bring tears in the eyes of the viewer. The film portrays all the
major political events from 1915 to Indian Independence in August 1947.

Being a 3-hour long movie, it has many scenes that catches viewers attentions and doesn’t fail to
make viewers emotional. Some of the emotionally strong scenes include the scene where Gandhi was
thrown out of train in South Africa, his angry encounter with his wife, his encounter with the farmers
of Champaran and many more.
Criticism

Although beautifully made, the film lacks certain things. It has ignored many significant events of
Gandhi’s life. The contribution of Dr. Ambedkar, Subash Chandra Bose, Bhagat Singh,
Chandrashekhar Azaad in Gandhi’s own life as well as freedom struggle of India has totally been
ignored by the makers. The viewers will only see a few characters like Nehru, Jinnah, Sardar Patel
and Maulana Azad around Gandhi all the time. Other than that, the movie fails to depict Gandhi’s
personal life. Although there are 5 many scenes which shows Gandhi’s relationship with his wife
Kasturba, it fails to show his relationship with his children and parents. Without depiction of Gandhi’s
personal life, the movie fails to develop fuller understanding of Bapu’s personality.

Gandhi’s relevance in ‘New India’-

Gandhi is more relevant in today’s India than he ever was. Some people might criticize Gandhi (it
can’t be ignored), but there is more to learn from him. A man so thin and short, wearing clothes he
himself spun, talking about truth and nonviolence, made one of the largest empires to surrender and
leave a country which they ruled for almost 200 years. There must be something in that man.

Here are some of his ideas which are relevant in today’s India

1. Ahimsa- Gandhi during his lifetime always resorted to non-violence. In the time when we have
become so restless that we are willing to kill people just because of their religion and caste, Gandhi’s
principle of Ahimsa is to be known to everyone.

2. Secularism- Gandhi was himself a Hindu, but he always taught to respect all the religions and pray
to the Almighty. He was a true secular which is perfect in the context of Indian secularism.

3. Casteless society- Gandhi has never believed in caste system. In the movie also, he told his wife to
clean the washrooms by herself when she said that it is the work of lower caste people. Gandhi’s ideas
can be used to eradicate caste-based discrimination in today’s India.

4. Cleanliness- Gandhi all throughout his life has practiced and propagated social cleanliness. This is
probably one of the most important things, we need to implement in New India.

Conclusion

The movie has been beautifully written and directed. Doing such a challenging job, that too by non-
Indians is pretty commendable. It surely drew attention of many foreigners who were unknown about
greatness of Mahatma. To Indians, it gives a gist of most of the major events that led to Indian
independence and shows the importance of Gandhi in the same.