The Hindu : Karnataka News : Good in some parts, forgettable in others film reviews

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Aug 05, 2007
ePaper

Karnataka

Karnataka

Good in some parts, forgettable in others film reviews

Personal and public: A scene from ‘Gandhi My Father’.

Gandhi My Father (Hindi)

Director: Feroz Abbas Khan

Cast: Akshaye Khanna, Darshan Jariwala, Bhumika, Shefali Chaya

The Father of the Nation continues to be paid periodic visits by purveyors of dreams. This time though, director Feroz Abbas Khan has dared to touch on a subject of the Mahatma’s life nobody has ever alluded to in cinema. He takes the glare away from the man who gave a new momentum to the freedom struggle with the Champaran Satyagraha. Instead, he is here as a human being, a man, father to millions of countrymen, who had a family of his own. A wife to take care of; and four sons. Among them was Harilal, the eldest, who realised to his dismay that the nation had deprived him of his father.

It has a most enticing of premises, and for large chunks it lives up to the expectations. Harilal – Akshaye Khanna in the most important role of his career – realises being Gandhiji’s son is a blessing he cannot thank God enough for. It is also a burden he never asked for. Now paying the price for his father’s ideals, now a victim of the inadequacies allowed to men borne of lesser mortals. It is engaging as long the focus is on Harilal finding his feet. It is in story telling, the narration that Feroz’s film suffers. In itself every moment is packed with style and substance. Yet there is nothing to hold it all together.

The way the film moves it is like a series of small incidents, good enough by themselves. But the missing commonality is jarring. There is lack of drama, not quite enough of a punch. And a tepid pace.

The father-son conflict could be of any era but Darshan Jariwala as Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi in South Africa is a refreshing change from the stereotypes of Gandhiji we have got accustomed to. True, his weight fluctuates throughout the film, from being on the heavier side to quite lean. But he rises above the predictables about Gandhiji and etches a neat portrait. His body language, his silence speaks more for him than anything else. Bhumika as Gulab, Harilal’s wife is fetching in a cameo while Shefali gets into her role only at the fag end. Akshaye? He is disappointing. He does not modulate his voice enough, there is a flat pattern to his dialogue delivery and except a couple of scenes, he never allows silent expression to take over.

Good in some parts, forgettable in others. That is the mixed bag Feroz has churned out. Watch “Gandhi My Father” only for the honesty of its purpose, its aesthetics.

ZIYA US SALAM

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka