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After becoming India’s first ever entry into the Toronto International Film Festival’s Primetime platform, the ambitious episodic drama Gandhi was received with cheers and applause.
A still from the new series Gandhi, which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. (Credit: Courtesy TIFF)
The first two episodes of the project capturing the early life of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, had their world premiere at the festival with screenings this Saturday, and the week before. On each occasion, the audience greeted Gandhi with standing ovations. These formed part of the eight-episode first season of tracking his journey as a youth from India to England and South Africa, prior to becoming the Mahatma. “Gandhi spotlights a young man whose self-discovery and curiosity about the world would lead him to forever change it,” was how TIFF Primetime programmer Geoff Macnaughton described it.
Created by Sameer Nair and director Hansal Mehta, the series is based on Ramachandra Guha’s Gandhi Before India and Gandhi: The Years That Changed the World.
Curiously enough, the role of the young Gandhi and his wife Kastur, are played by real life couple Pratik Gandhi and Bhamini Oza Gandhi. That wasn’t intended by the series’ creators but came about after Oza Gandhi had to go through four auditions before joining her husband in the cast.
The intent behind Gandhi is to bring the person known as the Father of the Nation to a new audience which isn’t familiar with who he really was.
“That’s what he has been reduced to, the man on the Rupee note. People know he got us our freedom, that he is the known as the Father of the Nation,” director Hansal Mehta said. Reactions to Gandhi range between “two extremes”, he said: “He’s either deified or he’s verified.”
That is why the objective behind the project was to humanise him, profile his “emotional journey and growth” and portray Mohan as a “young boy trying to find himself” on a “journey of self discovery,” the director said.
From his family life, his formative travels, early admiration for the British Raj, impish humour, the initial episodes showcase Gandhi on a process of evolving. “We are trying to explore lesser, lesser known aspects of Gandhi,” Mehta said.
But he has even greater relevance today, as the opening scene, set in Durban, echoes anti-immigration rallies and xenophobia that has gripped the West including Canada recently.
Using cinematic visuals, carefully-crafted period settings, augmented by a sweeping score from AR Rahman, it was appropriate that though this is serialised storytelling, it premiered on the big screen at TIFF.
With the remaining episodes in various stages of post-production, Gandhi is likely to become widely available next year, though the platform hasn’t been finalised.
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