[amazon_link id=”B000MDH5VM” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]
[/amazon_link]Rating : Above average (3.55/5)
Genre : Drama
Year : 2005
Running time : 1 hr and 25 minutes
Director : Jahnu Barua
Cast : Anupam Kher, Urmila Matondkar, Rajat Kapoor, Addy, Divya Jagdale, Boman Irani, Parvin Dabbas, Waheeda Rehman, Vishwaas Pandya
MAINE GANDHI KO NAHIN MAARA : Poignant and moving, but loses impact
This film turned out to be quite different from what I’d expected, at least as far as storyline goes. From the title I’d gauged it to be about Gandhi’s assasination. However it turns out to be set in modern-day Mumbai, about a father and daughter’s relationship, and the relevance of Gandhism in modern times. Produced by Anupam Kher, the script and direction are both by Jahnu Barua.
Prof. Uttam Chaudhary (Kher) is a retured Hindi professor, living with his daughter Trisha (Urmila), and son Addy (Addy). Ronu (Kapoor) his other son, lives in America, but helps support the family financially. The professor, a man of great integrity and honesty, considered a genius in his time is slowly losing his mind, to what appears to be a curious mixture of Alzheimer’s and schizophrenia. And even more strangely, he appears beset by the thought, that he has assasinated Gandhi. His home appears now to him as a jail, and he sees his children as jailors. His paranoia grows, much to the distress of his daughter, who is his one steadfast supporter, and is not willing to give up on him.
For this she switches doctors, meeting a new doctor (Dabbas) and his senior Dr. Verma (Prem Chopra). The good doctor, having tried all tacks, now resolves to try a rather radical experiment to rid the professor of his paranoia. Does he succeed ?
As I’m seeing this film, I’m wondering where it’s going, really. Because the story is different and wavers, you have no idea what to expect, or what the possible ending could be. And the ending (all that courtroom drama) stretches your imagination a bit too much, first of all as to the plausibility of the entire setup , since otherwise this film is so “real”. In hind-sight I see where all this was going and the point the director was trying to make, but me thinks that such a storyline and the required impact is more suited to the theatre than the silver screen, because a stage-play can make use of the fantastic/meta-physical, and twist reality to make a point. In a film, such flights of fancy have to have very strong sceenplays, and be mired in great direction, or else they don’t take flight. Precisely what’s happened here.
This is the big flaw in this film – it mixes the real and the fantastic to it’s own detriment. I mean, it’s all very noble to have a vision (I have tons of them, really), but if you can’t potray that vision believably, then it’s not doing much good. Thus, in this case, when it comes, the thrust is half-baked and sluggish. This film has under-currents of idealism and patriotism, although they come to the fore-front rather late. Direction could have been crisper, although acting by Kher and Urmila is very good. Rajat Kapoor and Addy also do a good job. Dabbas as the doctor has way too puffy hair, to appear a good doctor, me snidely thinks. And Prem chopra is a disaster as Dr. Verma – look pretty villainish, instead of looking saintly. I felt he was going to whip out a knife any minute, instead of spouting that doctorly dialogue.
Still, way better than the average Bollywood film, this deserves a viewing.
