Gandhi, My Father (2007)

The account of troubled relationship between Mahatma Gandhi and his eldest son.

Director:

Feroz Abbas Khan

Writers:

Chandulal Dalal (book), Feroz Abbas Khan,

Stars:

Akshaye Khanna, Darshan Jariwala, Shefali Shetty

2 wins & 5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Akshaye Khanna	...	Harilal Gandhi
Darshan Jariwala	...	Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
Shefali Shetty	...	Kasturba Gandhi (as Shefali Shah)
Bhoomika Chawla	...	Gulab Gandhi
Daniel Janks	...	Henry Polak
Ilanit Shapiro	...	Sonja Schlesin (as Illanit Shipiro)
Mithilesh Chaturvedi	...	Zakaria
Rajendranath Zutshi	...	Grieving Fast Food Stall Owner
Bomie E. Dotiwala	...	Photographer (as Bomi Dotiwalla)
Gregg Viljoen	...	General Ian Smutts (as Greg Villojen)
Rustom Irani	...	Mahadev Desai
Nayan Shukla	...	Jeevan
Padmesh Rawal	...	Narottamdas
Dharmendra Gohil	...	Harilal's Arya Samaj room-mate
Mona Ambegaonkar	...	Prostitute

Storyline

Mohandas was born in the Gujarati speaking family, had several brothers who jointly owned property in Rajkot. At the age of 13 Mohandas married Kasturba. On attaining maturity he re-located to England, became a Barrister, returned home, and together with Kasturba re-located to South Africa. They returned to India for a few years and this is where they became parents of four sons: Harilal, Manilal, Ramdas and Devdas. Subsequently, the family returned to South Africa, leaving Harilal alone. As Harilal did not do well in his studies he got married to Gulab without his parents' blessings. Mohandas then invited Harilal to South Africa and on his Secretary's request also invited Gulab, who had recently given birth to a daughter, Rami. Harilal wanted to be a Barrister like his father but found his movements restricted as his father wanted him to actively participate against the Satanist and Racist British regime, leading to Harilal being arrested and imprisoned. Harilal's hopes of becoming a...

---

Plot Keywords:

south africa | hindu | muslim | independence movement | reference to mahatma gandhi | 

---

Genres:

Biography | Drama | History

---

Details

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi English Gujarati Bengali

Release Date:

27 July 2007 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Pune, Maharashtra, India

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

£44,242 (UK) (3 August 2007)

Gross:

$240,425 (USA) (17 August 2007)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Anil Kapoor Film Company, Eros International

Technical Specs

Runtime:

136 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

User Reviews

Cut the Crap.. This movie is Good.

Gandhi My Father is a well made movie. It nicely portrays the life of Gandhiji's Eldest Son Harilal. His character, his differences with his father, his love for his family, his desire to stand on his own, his failure, his ego.. Akshaye Khanna completely justifies the role of Harilal. Just not him, everyone did well in the roles they played. Darshan Jariwala is the best on-screen Gandhiji I've ever seen. But I will cut three points as there were few shortcomings.

First, movie was fifteen-twenty minutes longer than it should have. Second, the movie needed more research into Harilal's character. Somewhere, the character looked incomplete. Also, his relation with his brothers was not shown. There was no mention of any other child of Gandhiji in the whole movie. I believe the character like Harilal should be having at least some differences his brothers as well, considering the egoist nature of Harilal.

Anyways, despite some shortcomings, I liked the movie. Recommended...