Release CalendarDVD & Blu-ray ReleasesTop 250 MoviesMost Popular MoviesBrowse Movies by GenreTop Box OfficeShowtimes & TicketsIn TheatersComing SoonMovie NewsIndia Movie Spotlight
    What's on TV & StreamingTop 250 TV ShowsMost Popular TV ShowsBrowse TV Shows by GenreTV NewsIndia TV Spotlight
    What to WatchLatest TrailersIMDb OriginalsIMDb PicksIMDb Podcasts
    OscarsBest Picture WinnersBest Picture WinnersEmmysLGBTQ+ Pride MonthSTARmeter AwardsSan Diego Comic-ConNew York Comic-ConSundance Film FestivalToronto Int'l Film FestivalAwards CentralFestival CentralAll Events
    Born TodayMost Popular CelebsMost Popular CelebsCelebrity News
    Help CenterContributor ZonePolls
For Industry Professionals
  • All
  • Titles
  • TV Episodes
  • Celebs
  • Companies
  • Keywords
  • Advanced Search
Watchlist
Sign In
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
IMDbPro

Gandhi

  • 19821982
  • PGPG
  • 3h 11m
IMDb RATING
8.1/10
229K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
3,063
453
Gandhi (1982)
A biography of Mahatma Gandhi, the lawyer who became the famed leader of the Indian revolts against the British through his philosophy of non-violent protest.
Play trailer5:09
4 Videos
99+ Photos
  • Biography
  • Drama
The life of the lawyer who became the famed leader of the Indian revolts against the British rule through his philosophy of nonviolent protest.The life of the lawyer who became the famed leader of the Indian revolts against the British rule through his philosophy of nonviolent protest.The life of the lawyer who became the famed leader of the Indian revolts against the British rule through his philosophy of nonviolent protest.
IMDb RATING
8.1/10
229K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
3,063
453
  • Director
    • Richard Attenborough
  • Writer
    • John Briley
  • Stars
    • Ben Kingsley
    • John Gielgud
    • Rohini Hattangadi
Top credits
  • Director
    • Richard Attenborough
  • Writer
    • John Briley
  • Stars
    • Ben Kingsley
    • John Gielgud
    • Rohini Hattangadi
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 324User reviews
    • 110Critic reviews
    • 79Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
  • Top rated movie #248
    • Won 8 Oscars
      • 35 wins & 21 nominations total

    Videos4

    Gandhi: Trailer
    Trailer 5:09
    Gandhi: Trailer
    Gandhi
    Trailer 5:01
    Gandhi
    Gandhi
    Clip 1:52
    Gandhi
    Gandhi
    Clip 1:59
    Gandhi

    Photos124

    Ben Kingsley in Gandhi (1982)
    Gandhi (1982)
    Ben Kingsley in Gandhi (1982)
    Gandhi (1982)
    Ben Kingsley and Rohini Hattangadi in Gandhi (1982)
    Martin Sheen and Ben Kingsley in Gandhi (1982)
    Roshan Seth in Gandhi (1982)
    Ben Kingsley and Terrence Hardiman in Gandhi (1982)
    Gandhi (1982)
    Ben Kingsley in Gandhi (1982)
    Candice Bergen, Ben Kingsley, Rohini Hattangadi, and Geraldine James in Gandhi (1982)
    Ben Kingsley in Gandhi (1982)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Ben Kingsley
    Ben Kingsley
    • Mahatma Gandhias Mahatma Gandhi
    John Gielgud
    John Gielgud
    • Lord Irwinas Lord Irwin
    Rohini Hattangadi
    Rohini Hattangadi
    • Kasturba Gandhias Kasturba Gandhi
    • (as Rohini Hattangady)
    Roshan Seth
    Roshan Seth
    • Pandit Nehruas Pandit Nehru
    Candice Bergen
    Candice Bergen
    • Margaret Bourke-Whiteas Margaret Bourke-White
    Edward Fox
    Edward Fox
    • General Dyeras General Dyer
    Trevor Howard
    Trevor Howard
    • Judge Broomfieldas Judge Broomfield
    John Mills
    John Mills
    • The Viceroyas The Viceroy
    Martin Sheen
    Martin Sheen
    • Walkeras Walker
    Ian Charleson
    Ian Charleson
    • Charlie Andrewsas Charlie Andrews
    Günther Maria Halmer
    Günther Maria Halmer
    • Herman Kallenbachas Herman Kallenbach
    • (as Gunter Maria Halmer)
    Athol Fugard
    Athol Fugard
    • General Smutsas General Smuts
    Saeed Jaffrey
    Saeed Jaffrey
    • Sardar Patelas Sardar Patel
    Geraldine James
    Geraldine James
    • Mirabehnas Mirabehn
    Alyque Padamsee
    Alyque Padamsee
    • Mohamed Ali Jinnahas Mohamed Ali Jinnah
    Amrish Puri
    Amrish Puri
    • Khanas Khan
    Ian Bannen
    Ian Bannen
    • Senior Police Officeras Senior Police Officer
    Michael Bryant
    Michael Bryant
    • Principal Secretaryas Principal Secretary
    • Director
      • Richard Attenborough
    • Writer
      • John Briley
    • All cast & crew
    • See more cast details at IMDbPro

    More like this

    Dances with Wolves
    8.0
    Dances with Wolves
    The Grapes of Wrath
    8.1
    The Grapes of Wrath
    Groundhog Day
    8.1
    Groundhog Day
    The Help
    8.1
    The Help
    The Best Years of Our Lives
    8.1
    The Best Years of Our Lives
    Rocky
    8.1
    Rocky
    Jaws
    8.1
    Jaws
    Amadeus
    8.4
    Amadeus
    Hotel Rwanda
    8.1
    Hotel Rwanda
    Ben-Hur
    8.1
    Ben-Hur
    In the Name of the Father
    8.1
    In the Name of the Father
    The Exorcist
    8.1
    The Exorcist

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Over 300,000 extras appeared in the funeral sequence. About 200,000 were volunteers, and 94,560 were paid a small fee (under contract). The sequence was filmed on January 31, 1981, the 33rd anniversary of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi's funeral. Eleven crews shot over 20,000 feet of film, which was pared down to two minutes and five seconds in the final release.
    • Goofs
      In the opening scene in South Africa, Gandhi is riding first class on a steam locomotive. The first class car is shown as the forward car, closest to the engine. In passenger steam engines, first class would be the rearmost car, farthest away from the engine's heat and exhaust. Second or third class would be nearest the engine.
    • Quotes

      Gandhi: An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.

    • Crazy credits
      Opening credits prologue: No man's life can be encompassed in one telling. There is no way to give each year its allotted weight, to include each event, each person who helped to shape a lifetime. What can be done is to be faithful in spirit to the record and try to find one's way to the heart of the man....

      NEW DELHI INDIA 30th JANUARY 1948
    • Alternate versions
      In April 2005, Skoll launched the Gandhi Project in partnership with Silicon Valley entrepreneur Kamran Elahian. Working with Palestinian voice actors and artists, an award-winning director dubbed the epic film into Arabic. It is being screened throughout Palestine in order to advance civil society goals of peaceful resistance, self-reliance, economic development and local empowerment, and plans are underway to expand screenings throughout the Arab world.
    • Connections
      Featured in The Making of Gandhi: Mr. Attenborough and Mr. Gandhi (1983)
    • Soundtracks
      God Save the King!
      (1744) (uncredited)

      Music attributed to Henry Carey

      Sung by Ben Kingsley

      Reprised when India achieves independence

    User reviews324

    Review
    Top review
    Making of Mahatma's movie
    Picture this. Gandhiji walks in a court, accused of influencing the people and starting a movement, the Non Cooperation movement, immediately after Gandhiji broke the fast he started to curb the movement which had assumed violence after Chauri Chora. We walks in alone, unescorted and as soon as he walks in there is an unexplainable silence in the court, and to everyone's surprise the Judge, stands up in respect of the accused ! Seeing him do this the barristers and rest also stand up. This scene though may seem insignificant on paper is one without which this entire movie would have been incomplete. To know why……read on !

    On day of 2nd October they play this movie every year on DD National, Richard Attenborough's Gandhi. I never watched it whenever it was shown since 20 years of 2nd Octobers I had seen. The first few years because I couldn't understand and the next few because I felt that though it's a multiple Oscar winner, how could at the end of the day, a British person understand and do justice to an Indian icon ? After so many years I finally broke the ice and saw the movie in totality right from the first scene of Nathuram Godse, to Hey Ram, and I understood that Gandhi was as British, as much a part of Britain's history as he was of India's, in fact an outsider judged the person better than we ourselves could, hence without doubt this is a masterpiece, because it was always meant to be.

    Richard Attenborough like all directors worth their salt uses visual aid as a medium to replace conventional dialogue delivery at times. A picture is worth a thousand words and a scene without words is worth a million. Like the first scene I described and others. In one scene towards the end of the movie, Gandhiji starts a fast until death to stop the communal riots post independence and Nehru goes to meet him. A crowd had gathered near his residence and one of the person in the crowd shouted a suggestion, 'Why don't they kill Gandhi ?', Nehru furiously jumps into the crowd to search for this person and the camera moves in the crowd and for a briefest time and quite unmistakably you spot Nathuram Godse in the crowd. This made me think, 'hey this is what I call good cinema!'.

    So what about the outsider theory ? Well you see if Rajkumar Santoshi, Yash Chopra, Raj Kapoor or Mani Ratnam had made this movie they would have fallen under the pressure and the unbearably weight of historical facts, Richard had that advantage. Someone quite ignorant about Indian culture was telling a story of an Indian to an audience even more ignorant. What I mean is that there are things which are skewed up, characters gone wrong and famous words mouthed by someone else. For example the writer has messed the character of the Patel Siblings. Vallabhbhai Patel was never an extrovert and never as polished as shown in the movie, but someone else was and it was his more Birtish, yet less famous elder brother Vithalbhai who in fact introduced Vallabh to Indian movement. Again it is a known fact that Vallabhai continued the Dandi march after Gandhi's arrest, the fact which is ignored. Once again the characters of Kriplani, Maulana Azad etc are all skewed. But at the end of it works, why, because Richard's view is focused. I would notice these mistakes because I am an Indian aware of this, a person in England may never find out and even if he does he would consider it as trivial because this is a story of Gandhi and not the Indian freedom struggle. People say that unnecessary importance is given to foreign characters in Gandhi's life like Margret, Rev. Charlie, Walker, Miraben, but I would say it is necessary because these people did influence Gandhi and made him an international personality which he is.

    But before I end my take on this movie I must comment on the characterization. Starting with Ben Kinsley as Gandhi. To tell you the truth when I first saw him as Mohandas KG in the train I was shocked, he didn't look like Gandhi which I imagined, but as the movie goes ahead I changed my opinion. Ben worked because of multiple reasons. The first he is a British Gujarati, Gandhi was gujarati who did his law in England so both speak the same language, Partly British English with unmistakable Gujarati overtones. Second all other characterization of Gandhis in the history are shown as fragile creatures without clothes. Ben did carry some more body than others and which made Gandhi look more real , more alive. Also he had an infectious little smile which works because Gandhi in many was a jovial happy person who smiled a lot , a kind smile of calm which no one but Ben Kinsley brought out ! Of the other characters, Martin Sheen as Walker was impressive, so were Lord Erwin, Gen Dyer, Margrets, Nehru and Miraben's characters. Rohini Hattangidi as Kasturba does a remarkable job too, though she was shown a little more extroverted than Kasturba was , maybe.

    As a whole to sum it up, this is one hell of a beautiful movie experience. If you missed it this 2nd October don't forget to tune into it the next.
    helpful•120
    49
    • omlakhani
    • Oct 2, 2004

    FAQ8

    • What is 'Gandhi' about?
    • Is 'Gandhi' based on a book?
    • When did Richard Attenborough ask Candice Bergen to play this role in Gandhi?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • February 25, 1983 (United States)
    • Countries of origin
      • United Kingdom
      • India
      • United States
      • South Africa
    • Languages
      • English
      • Hindi
    • Also known as
      • Richard Attenborough's Film: Gandhi
    • Filming locations
      • Old Town Hall, Staines, Surrey, England, UK
    • Production companies
      • International Film Investors
      • National Film Development Corporation of India (NFDC)
      • Goldcrest Films International
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $22,000,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $52,767,889
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $131,153
      • Dec 12, 1982
    • Gross worldwide
      • $52,767,889
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      3 hours 11 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
      • Black and White
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Atmos
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.39 : 1

    Related news

    Contribute to this page

    Suggest an edit or add missing content
    Gandhi (1982)
    Top Gap
    What is the streaming release date of Gandhi (1982) in India?
    Answer
    • See more gaps
    • Learn more about contributing
    Edit page

    More to explore

    View list
    List
    Editors' Picks: What to Watch Now on Netflix
    See the full list
    View list
    List
    The Best Movies Coming This Summer
    See the full list

    Recently viewed

    Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.
    Get the IMDb App
    • Get the IMDb App
    • Help
    • Site Index
    • IMDbPro
    • Box Office Mojo
    • IMDb Developer
    • Press Room
    • Advertising
    • Jobs
    • Conditions of Use
    • Privacy Policy
    • Interest-Based Ads
    IMDb, an Amazon company

    © 1990-2022 by IMDb.com, Inc.