The Mahatma, up close!
ANUJ KUMAR
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Director Feroz Abbas Khan on the making of “Gandhi My Father.”
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In the land of Gandhi, people in power still condone the criminal activities of their wards and the
common man gets away from issues of integrity
by saying ‘Main Gandhi nahin hoon bhai’
PHOTO: R.V. MOORTHY
TOWERING EXPECTATIONS Feroz Abbas Khan says the ?lm portrays the con?ict between the aspirations of a child and the values of parents.
As Gandhi’s personal life unfolds for the first time on the silver screen with “Gandhi My Father”, director Feroz Abbas Khan says he is aware of his responsibility. “I know freedom of expression comes with lots of responsibili
ty but once you realise it nothing can come in the way of your pursuit for truth.”
According to Feroz, the film, which deals with the turbulent relations between Gandhi and his eldest son Harilal, is not judgemental. And that he has not tried to be a peeping Tom. “It would have been very easy to paint either Gandhi or Harilal as a villain. But to me circumstances played that part. I have tried to see things dispassionately.” To be on the safer side he consulted the members of the Gandhi family and has shown the film to Tushar Gandhi, the great grandson of Mahatma before the release. Feroz clarifies that the film won’t carry any disclaimer that it’s a piece of fiction and the similarities are coincidental. “There is no need as the film is based on facts.”
Big test
The film is a big test for Feroz, who has an impeccable image as a theatre director. “Honestly, at the beginning I was concerned for I have set certain standards in theatre. The good thing was that my plays have also been visually appealing. Still, I had to unlearn a number of things.” He elaborates, “In theatre you start thinking in words, but in cinema you have to think in images. Theatre is just one long shot but in cinema there are unlimited options. As a warm-up exercise I took a family friend from FTII along to Bhor near Ahmedabad to shoot some visuals. Then after the first schedule, I took the footage to Chennai and got it edited by Sreekar Prasad. The conversation with him made me realise that I still have to cut down on verbosity. Gradually, I realised the importance of silence and have been able to complete the film in 126 minutes. It’s satisfying since it captures a sweep of 42 years (1906-1948).”
As for the script, Feroz says the subject was with him for a long time. “However, I would like to make it clear that it’s not an adaptation of my play ‘Gandhi Vs Mahatma’, though it also deals with the same subject. The film draws largely from the biography of Harilal by Chandulal Dalal.”
Contemporary relevance
Elaborating on the script and its contemporary relevance, Feroz says, “I didn’t want to make a museum piece, so I wrote a script that would connect with now. The film’s message is contemporary for in the land of Gandhi, who once said, ‘hum kab tak apne bachchon ki galtiyon ka bachav karte rahenge’, people in power still condone the criminal activities of their wards and the common man gets away from issues of integrity by saying ‘Main Gandhi nahin hoon bhai’.”
But does Gandhi’s viewpoint on matrimony hold good today? Or for that matter Harilal turning Muslim for economic reasons…. Feroz retorts, “Gandhi didn’t offer any magic potion to Indians, as many of us like to believe. He lived his principles and expected others to follow unconditionally. As for Harilal turning Abdullah Gandhi, Harilal had taken a heavy loan and was in no condition to repay it. The Muslim fundamentalists saw it as an opportunity to embarrass Gandhi. It didn’t work for Harilal had turned a heavy alcoholic by then and was of no use for such groups. Also, when Harilal realised the sinister motive he came back to the fold. In fact, once he even turned violent when somebody tried to denigrate Gandhi because of him.”
Feroz, who himself played Harilal in “Mahatma Vs Gandhi”, wants to make us believe that Gandhi’s sons were not wimps. “Behind the greatness of the man, we generally forget that the Father of the Nation had a family of his own and faced problems that you and I face in running the family. In one scene we have shown all the four sons with Gandhi, but as the film is about Harilal, the focus is on him. Few know Gandhi got the idea of Satyagraha from Harilal. He became the first Satyagrahi, when he went on a protest fast against the atrocities of the British government in South Africa. In fact, Gandhi once observed that he was one of the two persons he could not convince his entire life. The other obviously being Jinnah.”
On the choice of his actors, Feroz says it’s wrong to categorise Akshaye Khanna as somebody who comes from the easy world of commercial films. “I feel it’s much easier to play characters like Harilal which are set in some social or political context than Rahul or Jai which have no reference points.”
His learning of the medium unlocked another fact for Feroz. “I realised that camera requires something called screen presence and you either have it or don’t. I tried many a theatre giant during auditions but they just fizzled out in front of the camera. Though a theatre veteran, Darshan (Jariwala) passed this test. And that he didn’t have any image helped.” But he doesn’t look like Gandhi at all? “That’s in real life. On screen he does. And that’s what matters.”
Also, what matters to Feroz is the box office response to the film.
“I am keeping my options open for the future but one thing is sure, I am not saying goodbye to theatre.”
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