Now when the first still of Gandhi my father was put up I was excited about this film and thought it would be indias great chance at oscar(considering Gandhijis popularity) if done well but After seeing the film must say its a tremendous oopurtunity wasted.
I dont understand what director wnated to tell here its more like other side of Mahatma than his son(as the tile suggest) actually the appropriate title would have been Mahatma vs Gandhi(the title of play) . tjhe story is nothing diff from what we have known of gandhiji just insorporate some of the confrontation secene.
the movie biggest flaw is screenplay . it just doesnot look like in continuity as one feels in film . one example is after one of the confrontation scene btw harilal and gandhiji we find harilal touching gandhijis feet in next scene . one have no idea what happened between the scenes or after confrontations and feels something is missing in between> such things happen in satge play but film is a diff . medium.
it also doesnot help the viewer to sympathize for harilal . somethings are not at all explained like say what happened to the other sons of gandhiji or wat happens to the children of harilal.
coming to performances Akshay khanna is inconsistent ranging from awesome in some scenes(particularly when he si alone) but he falls flat against Darshan jhariwala or Shefalii chayya.
Sehfali chayya is brilliant in a role which was very badly etched out . it was actually her performance that made us feel for kasturba otherwise the director had done what he could to take the feelings of the wife of our father of the nation.
Darshan JAriwal is outstanding as Gandhiji the way he talks, walks or looks are similar to the our great leader and actually the film belongs to him . a role he would never get in his entire life . I also felt more by this performances as I ahd seen him giving his worse performance some 4 hours before in AAp ka ego so suroor.
Bhoomika does well in a small role.
Feroze Khan has to be blamed for all the wrong things with the film be in poor charecterization or for that matter Allowing akshay to be flat in confrontation scenes. in short he is better suited for stage then cinema. also considering he is a writer of the film(though original plot taken from book by Chandulal dalal).
Cinematography(David McDonald) and art direction( nitin desai)is awesome and one feel the era of the 1940s.
special mention for the editor(Sreekar prasad for ruining the film by breaking the continuity of the film.
overall a tremendous oppurtunity and story wasted .
Rating 2/5