Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi may have influenced the plot of many a film, but historians and biographers have attested to his aversion toward cinema, so much so that he considered talkies a “corrupting influence”. The Mahatma did enjoy good music, but when it came to movies, he did not like the idea of being inside a “closed theatre without ventilation”. Apparently, he was also not in favour of newspapers publishing glamorous pictures of heroes and heroines. An avid reader, who is said to have read some 200 books when he was imprisoned between 1922 and 1924 during the freedom struggle, Gandhi never took interest in motion pictures. Even Dadasaheb Phalke’s 1913 silent film Raja Harishchandra, based on one of Gandhi’s role models, didn’t pique his curiosity toward the medium.
In an excerpt from author-professor Rachel Dwyer’s article, The Case of the Missing Mahatma: Gandhi and the Hindi Cinema, it was noted that perhaps the reason the ‘Father of the Nation’ had a disdain for cinema was because in his lifetime “the only film star he was said to resemble was Mickey Mouse, according to his close friend [political activist and poet] Sarojini Naidu”. In an interview with the Indian Cinematograph Committee, Gandhi – who made the Indian Independence Movement popular across the globe – was documented saying, “Even if I was so minded, I would be unfit to answer your questionnaire, as I have never been to a cinema. But even to an outsider, the evil that it has done and is doing is patent. The good, if it has done any at all, remains to be proved.” Madras-based documentary filmmaker AK Chettiar had made a special film, called Mahatma Gandhi, which was slated to have a worldwide release in as many as 21 languages. It had footage of Gandhi from 1912. The March 1940 issue of Filmindia magazine even carried an article about it, titled ‘Mahatma Gandhi becomes a film star’.
Did you know Charlie Chaplin’s iconic 1940 comedy film The Great Dictator, which advocated a nonviolent resistance against Hitler, was said to be inspired by the life and works of Gandhi? When Bapu visited London in 1931 to take part in the Second Round Table Conference, the two legends met for the first time, while their photographs made the front pages of newspapers the following day. Chaplin’s Modern Times, released in 1936, was also influenced by Gandhi. It was the comic actor-filmmaker’s last performance as the famous Little Tramp. In his autobiography, Chaplin said that his meeting with Gandhi “inspired him to make the movie on the dehumanising effect of automation”. Ironically, Gandhi didn’t actually have a clue about who Chaplin was before they met in the UK.
A lawyer by training, Mahatma Gandhi watched only two films in his entire life. It is said that his associate Mirabehn (Madeleine Slade) somehow convinced Bapu to watch the Michael Curtiz-directed 1943 movie Mission to Moscow, the plot of which was inspired by former US ambassador to the Soviet Union Joseph E Davies’ memoir published in 1941 by the same name. A Warner Bros. production, the movie featured Walter Huston, Ann Harding and Oskar Homolka in the lead. A special screening was arranged for Gandhi on May 21, 1944. But a dance sequence of ‘semi-nude’ women was enough to irk him.
Next came filmmaker Vijay Bhatt’s 1943 directorial Ram Rajya, with Prem Adib, Shobhna Samarth and Umakant Desai featuring as Ram, Sita and Laxman, respectively. It is believed that Gandhi watched the movie on the insistence of noted art director Kanu Desai. Via another special arrangement, the film was shown to him on June 2, 1944. Why such quick succession, you may ask. It is said that Gandhi felt he needed “to see an Indian film” after he “made the mistake of watching an English one”. Many also claim that Ram Rajya, which turned out to be a successful project, was the only film Bapu ever watched. It was among the first Indian films that premiered in the US. Gandhi may or may not have loved cinema, but in the past century a number of movies, memoirs and documentaries have celebrated his life and philosophy on celluloid. It’s only fascinating to comprehend that someone who lived so many decades ago continues to influence the human psyche on such an immense scale. The Gandhian principles of nonviolence, truthfulness, simplicity and peace are more relevant today than ever before.
Gandhi may or may not have loved cinema, but in the past century a number of movies, memoirs and documentaries have celebrated his life and philosophy on celluloid. It’s only fascinating to comprehend that someone who lived so many decades ago continues to influence the human psyche on such an immense scale. The Gandhian principles of nonviolence, truthfulness, simplicity and peace are more relevant today than ever before.
(This feature was first published in The Movie Mail’s Instagram page)
