Gandhi, My Father Review
Movie Rating: 
The inspiring life of Mahatma Gandhi is contrasted with that of his troubled son in this biographical drama
Darth Vader, Margaret Thatcher and Bryan Ferry - all three are very public sufferers of embarrassing offspring syndrome. As any number of glossy gossip magazines show us, it can be hell living in the shadow of a famous parent, though were Mahatma Gandhi around today it’s tough to imagine him making too many ‘Heat’ magazine covers as he launches his new cellulite-busting dance video
THE TITLE ‘Mahatma’ to Mohan Das Karamchand Gandhi was bestowed on to him by none other then the great Noble laureate Rabindranath Tagore. He is also called the ‘Father of the Nation’, again a title conferred on him by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and recently the United Nations has also declared his birthday, the 2nd of October to be observed as International Day of Non-violence.
Mahatma Gandhi has been revered like God in India. Believed to be an ardent follower of secularism, how many of us are aware about the fact that Gandhi had disowned his eldest son Hiralal Gandhi.
Gandhi, My Father tells the great man’s story largely through the eyes of his wayward son, Harilal (Khanna). Kicking off at a Bombay hospital with a heavily bearded Harilal in a ropey old state, much of the would-be epic is relayed through flashback, starting with Gandhi Sr (Jariwala) voicing grave misgivings about Harilal’s marriage to Gulab (Chawla) while his own wife, Kasturba (Shah), grumpily works a string-controlled watering can-based shower over her spouse’s head in the film’s only attempt at humour.
Mohandas K Gandhi is soon at work as a lawyer in South Africa, where he requests his son’s presence. In no time the duo are up to all manner of non-violent, anti-oppression antics. And here is where the rot sets in between father and son, with the Mahatma telling his son to forget dreams of studying law in England and instead voluntarily trot off to prison in the name of the greater good.
Understandably Harilal’s none too impressed with this idea and spends the remainder of his life flitting between shady business deals, many of them trading on his father’s name, converting to various religions, possibly in an effort to annoy dad, and hitting the bottle.