Perhaps the greatest tribute to Mahatma Gandhi was paid by another towering personality of the 20 century, Albert Einstein. “Generations…will scarce believe that such a man as this one ever in flesh and blood walked upon this Earth,” the great scientist had said.
Decades later, Richard Attenborough, who died in London on Sunday, would pay a tribute to Gandhi on celluloid that would show the entire world what Einstein meant. Attenborough’s ‘Gandhi’, released in 1982, is of the greatest films of all time.
There is certain timelessness about it.
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“It remains one of my favourite films and I still remember several scenes which I first saw at a theatre in Thiruvananthapuram some three decades ago,” says actor Murali Gopy.
“The shot of Gandhi letting his loincloth float to a poor woman so that she could cover her body is most the moving scene I have ever seen in films.”
Director Rosshan Anddrews too remembers the film vividly.
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“I had seen the film on video, while I was studying or my Pre-Degree,” recalls the man who has made films like ‘Udayananu Tharam’, ‘Mumbai Police’ and ‘How Old Are You’.
“I think it was writer P.F. Mathews who had told me about the film. The film is a classic, and watching it you feel as if you are really watching Gandhi. Ben Kingsley was brilliant as Gandhi.”
Kingsley won an Oscar for his performance.
It was one of the eight Oscars ‘Gandhi’ won; it was the best film and there were awards for Attenborough’s direction, John Briley’s screenplay, and the cinematography of Billy Williams and Ronnie Taylor.
It might seem bit of an irony that it took a British man to direct a film on the greatest Indian, that too with most of villains in the story being British. But, no Indian could have made `Gandhi’ with more empathy and passion than Attenborough.
“ Gandhi is a perfect film,” says Murali.
“It is because the film is so good that you do not even notice some fatal omissions such as Subhash Chandra Bose.”