New Delhi: Gandhi Jayanti is celebrated on October 2 every year. On this day, the entire country celebrates India’s revolutionary individual, Mahatma Gandhi. To most, this day is simply a national holiday. However, what if we told you that you could spend this Gandhi Jayanti watching incredible directorials instead of lounging in bed all day?
There have been many movies that depict Mahatma Gandhi’s life. We have compiled a list of six movies that have managed to brilliantly capture Mahatma Gandhi’s life and ideals. Read through, pick an article and binge away!
Movies to watch on Gandhi Jayanti 2024
1. Gandhi (1982)
The 1982 movie, Gandhiis a biographical film based on the life of Mahatma Gandhi. The movie covers Gandhi’s life from 1893, the moment he was thrown off a South African train for sitting in a ‘whites-only’ compartment. From this to his eventual assassination in 1948, the movie does a great job of flushing out Gandhi’s character in a historically accurate way. Making almost ten times its original budget of $2 million, Gandhi became a commercial success and earned $127.8 million in its lifetime.
2. Mahatma: Life of Gandhi, 1869-1948 (1968)
Another documentary biographic movie, Mahatma: Life of Gandhi, 1869-1948, chronicles the major events in Mahatma Gandhi’s life. With Jhaveri’s commentary throughout the film, this black-and-white movie contains 14 chapters of the revolutionary’s life. Not only does this movie manage to show Gandhi’s search for truth, but also does so in a visually pleasing way. The movie includes animation, live photography and archived prints to further add to the realism of the documentary. The movie has several versions – a 5-hour, 2-hour and 1-hour English version, a Hindi version with a runtime of 2 hours and 20 minutes and a German version at 1 hour and 44 minutes.
3. Hey Ram (2000)
Starring Kamal Haasan and Shah Rukh Khan, Hey Ram is an epic historical drama movie made in both Tamil and Hindi. While this movie received generally positive reviews, it was a massive failure at the box office. The plot of the movie shows an alternate history timeline that portrays the Indian partition and Gandhi’s assassination at the hands of Nathuram Godse. Mixing historical events with Indian mythology, the movie is a fantastic watch that would give more insight into Mahatma Gandhi’s life.
4. I killed Gandhi (2005)
A Hindi drama film, I did not kill Gandhi.stars Anupam Kher and Urmila Matondkar. The plot of the movie follows Uttam Chaudhary, a senile Hindi professor who falls victim to dementia. When he comes across a picture of Mahatma Gandhi in a newspaper, something inside him shifts. Uttam believes that he was the one who killed Gandhi while playing with his toy gum during his walk in the Birla house. The movie goes into the nitty-gritty details of Gandhi’s assassination.
5. The Making of the Mahatma (1996)
The Making of the Mahatma is a 1996 biographical movie that depicts the early life of Mahatma Gandhi. The movie specifically focuses on the 21 years he spent in South Africa as Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, a barrister. Based on the book The Apprenticeship of a Mahatma by Fatima Meer, this movie was an international production between India and South Africa.
6. Keep going Munna Bhai
A cult-classic satirical comedy Bollywood film, Keep it up Munna Bhai stars Sanjay Dutt, Arshad Warsi, Vidya Balan, Dia Mirza and Boman Irani. Munna is an unbeatable don in the Mumbai underworld. However, his world turns upside down when he begins seeing visions of Mahatma Gandhi. While having conversations with the illusion, Munna integrates ‘Gandhigiri’ to help people solve their problems. This Gandhigiri is a set of rules that adhere to Gandhi’s real-life ideologies.
There you go! Here is a list of six movies that will help you understand Mahatma Gandhi’s life and his strict morals. Binge these movies on Gandhi Jayanti to honour one of the most prominent people in Indian history.
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