ALL TOO HUMAN:

A Humanizing Portrait of the Man Indians Call 'Father': Film Explores Gandhi's Painful Relations With His Son (Emily Wax and Rama Lakshmi, 8/15/07, Washington Post)

In the decades following his death in 1948, the man known as Mahatma Gandhi has become an icon. Photos of him at his spinning wheel wearing a white loincloth are as ubiquitous and globally recognizable as Bob Marley with dreadlocks or Che Guevara in a beret. Gandhi inspired civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr. of the United States and Nelson Mandela of South Africa, among others.

Many know of Gandhi's courage and determination as a freedom fighter, but few know of his shortcomings as a father. In the film, Harilal views Gandhi as alternately aloof and domineering, stubborn and even selfish, traits that helped estrange his eldest son, even though firstborn males are traditionally the most favored children in Indian culture.

What makes the film significant is its humanizing portrait of one of India's most revered leaders, a depiction that would have sparked outrage even a decade ago. Released on the eve of India's 60th anniversary of independence from Britain -- being celebrated Wednesday -- it shows a far more vulnerable and even flawed figure than the saintly Gandhi portrayed in Richard Attenborough's Oscar-winning film 25 years ago. Attenborough's deification of Gandhi was celebrated across India with packed cinemas, night after night, for years.

Actually, the human Gandhi was exposed in a review of that earlier dreck film, The Gandhi Nobody Knows (Richard Grenier, March 1983, Commentary)

Posted by Orrin Judd at August 15, 2007 3:10 PM