Review of Gandhi (1982) by Simeon D — 05 Jun 2010

Gandhi, based on the life of Mahatma Gandhi, is an epic biopic that manages to snag your sympathy but has uneven focus. Ben Kingsley stars as Mohandas Gandhi, an educated British lawyer with Indian ethnicity in 1893 South Africa.

After being assaulted because of his race, Gandhi begins a nonviolent campaign for non-prejudiced freedom. After leading a successful nonviolent campaign in South Africa, Gandhi visits India, where he is warmly welcomed and treated like a national hero.

After touring the Indian countryside, Gandhi decides that the British rule over India is not ethical and should be stopped. Through many arrests and turmoils, Gandhi strives with nonviolence to bring independence to India.

The rest is history. Richard Attenburough seems devout to make this as sprawling of an epic as possible, and he makes this clear in the first several scenes by using an unfathomable amount of extras and giant sets.

The benefit of this, of course, is that the cinematography is gorgeous, but the downside is that Attenburough forgets that the film is about Gandhi! Half of the film consists of Gandhi hobbling around and murmuring inspirational quotes, and the other half is battle scenes or political debates or Gandhi meeting with some random historical figure.

Ben Kingsley is very charismatic in the title role and carries Gandhi's grace and serenity splendidly. Kingsley is what made the 3 hours so enjoyable. Candice Bergen, Martin Sheen, and Edward Fox all give half assed performances as minor historical figures, and the film would have been much better without them.

Daniel Day-Lewis, who makes a 60 second cameo as a South African street thug, is fantastic. Ben Kingsley captures the essence of Gandhi and Richard Attenburough supplies some memorable camera shots and a sympathetic biopic at an epic scope, but the overall film doesn't know whether to focus on Gandhi's life or the Indian independence of Britain.

83/100.