’’Maine Gandhi ko Nahin Mara’’ is NOT a film about Gandhiji or Gandhian ideals...if you expect it to be so, you will be disappointed.
PLOT-
The story centers around Professor Uttam Chaudhary (Anupam Kher), a 65 year old man living in present day Bombay with two of his three children, Trisha (Urmila Matondkar) and son Karan. The older son Ronu (Rajat Kapur) lives away from them in the US. The Prof. is a gentle, scholarly, brilliant man who shares a very warm relationship with his children. In the midst of their heartwarming interactions, we start noticing something going wrong..the Professor starts forgetting things..minor things in the beginning, getting on to bigger incidents like forgetting he is retired, forgetting his wife has been dead for two years...it soon becomes apparent that he isn’t just forgetful and that his condition cannot just be attributed to old age, and that perhaps it is a serious disorder like Dementia.
As the Professor’s condition deteriorates, so does the life of his children, especially his daughter who has to neglect her job and her fiance because of her concern for her father. Her fiance abruptly jilts her ’coz her fathers condition is not acceptable to him or his parents. Professor slowly starts losing touch with reality, with his behaviour getting more and more bizarre........and ultimately, his two children see him crouching under his bed, holding a whole bunch of paper clippings, declaring...’’Maine Gandhiji ko nahin maara’’.
Why does the Professor think he’s killed Gandhiji...is it just a delusion that is part of his dementia and has nothing to do with reality, or is there some real incident that lies behind his belief? Are his children able to get him help, and is he able to escape the torment this belief causes him?
These are questions you have to watch the movie to have answered.
REVIEW-
The director, Jahnu Barua, tries to amalgamate two very different plot structures in this movie . On the one hand you have Professor Chaudhury and his very real condition of Dementia, his family and himself struggling with the reality of it in their everyday existence. On the other hand you have the assassination of Gandhiji in 1948 and its impact on people’s mindset, and the erosion of Gandhian values in present day society.
If you look at the movie in terms of the absolutely true to life depiction of Dementia and its consequent alienation and loneliness....this film is very moving and beautiful, in the way that suffering often is. The second plot structure, of adding Gandhiji as a sort of conscience keeper in the film, is not as effective. I cant say much more without revealing too much of the plot
Anupam Kher is BRILLIANT as Professor Uttam Chaudhary...to me this IS the finest acting performance of the year. I have worked with individuals with Dementia, and have often seen the unfortunate degeneration that occurs over the years. The actor doesn’t slip up even once and gives the most credible performance of a mental illness that I’ve ever seen..including Hollywood movies. Authenticity apart, Kher’s portrayal of the character is so darned likeable and real..no matter how absurd and far from reality he gets, you, as the audience, are always rooting for him.
Urmila, after Pinjar and Tehzeeb, hands in yet another wonderful, intense performance. Whether it is her anguish at her father’s deterioration, her frustration and anger at him when he ’’lets her down’’ in front of her prospective in-laws, or the betrayal she feels when her fiance marries some one else...she is absolutely on the money in terms of conveying her emotions. The guy who plays Karan is also effective and very convincing as the young, ’’not quite ready to handle the responsibility of an ill father’’, brother.
In conclusion, I would like to ask you to watch the movie from the perspective of the Professor and his family. When the Professor makes a speech in the end about everyone in the nation being guilty of killing Gandhi by letting him and his ideals down, you will feel tears rolling down your cheeks..not so much because of the truth of the statement, but because you are SO GLAD that the Professor hasn’t lost himself completely.