Review of Gandhi (1982) by Srinivasan J — 11 Aug 2009

Wow, another awesome film classics that everyone talks about and I had never seen until now. I also didn't know that the story actually has its origins in the country of South Africa, not India, during the apartheid era in the early half of the twentieth century.

And I thought it was not an English colony but rather a Dutch colony. So I was a little confused on this point when they were referring to the fair application of the Queen's law on all citizens of the empire when they were in South Africa.

Also surprising to me was that Gandhi actually felt he was a foreigner in India at first when he came there. I guess my ignorance of history is a bit overwhelming in these areas, so it was a good educational experience as well as a marvelously engaging story.

The story of this man and what he did is actually quite inspirational and revolutionary in its application. Although, I believe a lot of the principals and tactics he was applying actually seemed to me very much like Buddhist inspired thought.

The massacre scene where the British soldiers mowed down unarmed civilians with rifles, including women and children while in peaceful protest, immediately made me think of what Tienanmen Square must have been like as students were turned into target practice and dirt for tank treads.

Which was very ironic, since this movie was actually filmed before the Tienanmen Square massacre. I think the lesson to the English empire was that if you have a moral compass and you don't have the stomach for what you need to do to keep another nation or race or class of people under your thumb, then you will eventually loose your control over them.

So, perhaps the Chinese Communist Party leadership also saw this film and took careful notes on how to hang on to power and retain a kind of empire of their own. When you see native Indian police men beating on other Indians, you have to wonder about the skillful application of the English rule in India in the first place.

It makes you think long and hard about what kind of psychology must have been used to create such a scenario.