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PERSONALITY

Gandhi in reel life - lost and found

A film for all ages is now with the Gandhi Museum, writes S. S. Kavitha

The Temple City has many objets d'art and one more is added to the list with its possession of a film, `Mahatma Gandhi - A Twentieth Century Prophet,' a rare one on the Father of the Nation. A copy of the film, that was assumed to be lost, has been found at the Gandhi Museum.

Unique scenes

The documentary was made in English in 1953 in Hollywood by A. Karuppan Chettiar, a Tamil writer and journalist, popularly known as A.K. Chettiar. It runs for 55 minutes and has some unique scenes such as Gopalakrishna Gokhale's visit to South Africa in 1912; his meeting with Gandhi; Jawaharlal Nehru spinning a `chakra' (wheel); the Mahatma bathing in the sea at the end of Dandi March; Round Table Conference in London and Quit India Movement.

Another highlight is a mass spinning sequence shot by Chettiar at Tirupur, featuring 2,000 women spinning the `charka' with Carnatic singer D.K. Pattammal singing Namakkal Ramalingam Pillai's `Aadu Raatee' in the background.

Around the world

Mr. Chettiar, founder-Editor of the Tamil Monthly, `Kumari Malar,' spent 15 long years travelling one-lakh miles and collecting actual footage of Gandhi from about 100 cinematographers in four continents.

At the end of the collection-venture, Chettiar collected 50,000 feet of materials and edited it into a 12,000-foot, making it the first ever documentary in Tamil on Gandhi, in 1940.

Later, the film was released with a Telugu commentary. And, on the eve of independence, the film was screened with a Hindi commentary and leaders like Rajendra Prasad and Indira Gandhi watched it. In 1953, Chettiar re-edited the film in Hollywood with English commentary and screened it in the United States. A copy of this version is now with the Gandhi Museum.

English version

The English version was produced by Edith Martin for the American Academy of Asian Studies and the narration done by radio personality Quentin Reynolds.

After production in Hollywood, the film was screened for the first time in Washington DC and President Eisenhower watched the film with his wife, the secretary, Gandhi Museum, S. Pandian, points out

The President ordered the visitors to come in full suit to watch a film on a half-naked man. He also recalls an anecdote of how a porter at Chennai Central, who carried the film roll for A. K. Chettiar, refused to accept money. "Such was the regard for Gandhi," says Mr. Pandian.

The Gandhi Museum authorities have been screening the documentary once a fortnight for students and the public. But due to technical reasons, screening of this rare film has come to a halt with the projector suffering a technical defect. "Now the documentary is in DVD format and will be screened at the open air theatre in Gandhi Museum twice a month on first and third Fridays," informs Mr. Pandian.

The museum authorities want to trace the original documentary in Tamil as it contains shots of Tilak's funeral and of Romain Rolland and Madame Montessori recording their views on Gandhi. The present version, however, does not have scenes on Gandhi's early life, his formative South African days and some of his fasts. This is a film for all ages.

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