Gandhi Godse Ek Yudh: Love dilutes the powerful political debate

Was Mahatma Gandhi a stubborn obstinate self righteous man who favoured Muslims? Was he unfair to the Hindus? These are some of the vexatious questions that Rajkumar Santoshi’s thought provoking but diluted drama dares to ask. As a fan of Santoshi’s work Ghayal, Ghatak, Damini and especially Lajja, I held my breath for his resurrection in Gandhi Godse: Ek Yudh, Santoshi’s first film in ten years, and most definitely not among his best, but nonetheless a valuable political parable. It opens up the debate on Gandhi and his assailant Godse, played effectively by Deepak Antani and Chinmay Mandlekar, by showing them in the same chronological and historical range of vision. It is an audaciously fascinating what-if premise: suppose Gandhi had survived Godse’s bullet? Suppose Gandhi had resolved to forgive Godse and bring him around to his own way of thinking, and in the process, suppose Gandhi learnt a few lessons himself on being a true Vaishnav who understand peer parayi (others’ pain). Nice…. And hats off to Santoshi for daring to dream. But the film suffers from a seriously flawed dramatic diversion in the form of a love story that is knitted into the hypothetical face-off between the Mahatma and his assailant. The romantic subplot featuring newcomers Tanisha Santoshi and Anuj Saini as seriously committed childhood sweethearts torn apart by the obstinacy of the Mahatma, puts a brake on what could have been a powerful debate on Gandhian and non-Gandhian versions of socio-political protest. Both the actors in their eponymous parts furnish an impressive gravitas to their characters.Deepak Antani is especially outstanding as Mahatma Gandhi . He plays the Mahatma as a humane, vulnerable, well-meaning but often prone to excessive obstinacy. Antani’s Gandhi is also open to a giggle and chuckle.When a woman introduces herself as Nirmala, Gandhi giggles, “My goat is also named Nirmala. One Nirmala can look after another.” Not a great joke. But if you are Gandhi, you get your laughs. Antani’s is arguably the best portrayal of Gandhi on screen, and I include Ben Kingsley. Despite the distinctly clunky portions(the segment in Champaran plays out like mini episodes of a Doordarshan serial) Gandhi Godse: Ek Yudh works in most parts. It is a brave and politically well-informed film(at least in the initial pre-hypothetical segments) and the flight into fantasy, with Gandhi not only surviving Godse’s bullet but also much later Gandhi actually being saved from another assassin’s bullet by Godse, is admirable. Being a sucker for fictionalized history I loved the idea of Gandhi and Godse seeing eye to eye, defeating Godse’s eye or an eye ideology but not without pointing out major blemishes in the Mahatma’s ideology. A word on the cinematography and the music. Rishi Punjabi’s lenses capture the sepia-soaked frames with nostalgic grace. But what is A R Rahman’s contribution? Vaishnav jann and Raghupati raghav are not Rahman’s compositions. Just saying.

Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based journalist. He has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. Read all the  Latest News,  Trending News,  Cricket News,  Bollywood News,  India News and  Entertainment News here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and Instagram