Rating : 3/5
Cast :
Akshaye Khanna, Darshan Jariwala, Bhumika Chawla and Shefali Chhaya
Director: Feroz Abbas Khan
Producer: Anil Kapoor
Screenwriter: Feroz Abbas Khan
Director: Feroz Abbas Khan
Producer: Anil Kapoor
Screenwriter: Feroz Abbas Khan
Story Line :
Gandhi My Father is an epic story spanning from 1906 to 1948. Harilal Gandhi first incurs his father's disapproval when he marries young.
He's marrying a girl chosen by his father after four long years of engagement and yet Gandhi decides that he must break relations with Harilal.
Harilal is a simple man who wants simple things: a wife, home, children. His only ambition is to become a barrister.
Perhaps one day, he tells his wife, father and son can have their own law firm, Gandhi and Gandhi. But his father is, as General Smutts says, a politician on his way to sainthood.
The supremely idealistic Father of the Nation is a dysfunctional father at home.
Gandhi's inability to understand the small desires of his eldest son and Harilal's inability to live fruitfully in his father's colossal shadow sets the stage for disaster. Harilal dies, a drunk, alone and unknown, in a Bombay hospital.
Gandhi my father has evolved from director Feroze Abbas Khan's play Gandhi vs Mahatma.
So the film, despite lavish period set design and production values, feels stagey. It's slow, especially in the second half and the transitions are clunky.
Harilal's journey is exasperating - he compounds his bad luck with bad behaviour and there's never any good news.
So Gandhi My Father has ambition and craft. It also has a towering performance by Akshay Khanna whose trembling lips encapsulate a lifetime of frustration and sadness.
The other stand out performance is Shefali Shah as Kasturba, forever torn and enduring. The film is a wrenching account of one family's tragedy. I strongly recommend that you see it.
He's marrying a girl chosen by his father after four long years of engagement and yet Gandhi decides that he must break relations with Harilal.
Harilal is a simple man who wants simple things: a wife, home, children. His only ambition is to become a barrister.
Perhaps one day, he tells his wife, father and son can have their own law firm, Gandhi and Gandhi. But his father is, as General Smutts says, a politician on his way to sainthood.
The supremely idealistic Father of the Nation is a dysfunctional father at home.
Gandhi's inability to understand the small desires of his eldest son and Harilal's inability to live fruitfully in his father's colossal shadow sets the stage for disaster. Harilal dies, a drunk, alone and unknown, in a Bombay hospital.
Gandhi my father has evolved from director Feroze Abbas Khan's play Gandhi vs Mahatma.
So the film, despite lavish period set design and production values, feels stagey. It's slow, especially in the second half and the transitions are clunky.
Harilal's journey is exasperating - he compounds his bad luck with bad behaviour and there's never any good news.
But despite these flaws, Gandhi My Father deserves to be seen. Debutant director Feroz Khan has a fine eye for detail and debutant producer Anil Kapoor has a fierce desire to create a world class movie.
So Gandhi My Father has ambition and craft. It also has a towering performance by Akshay Khanna whose trembling lips encapsulate a lifetime of frustration and sadness.
The other stand out performance is Shefali Shah as Kasturba, forever torn and enduring. The film is a wrenching account of one family's tragedy. I strongly recommend that you see it.
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