Extraordinary father, ordinary son. Review on Gandhi My Father

I walked into the hall a few minutes into the film.  So I missed the opening.  I presume it started with a hospitalised Harilal, thinking out the past events, a kind of life flashing before one's eyes.

When the movie opens, Gandhi is in South Africa and his son is left behind in Rajkot to study.  Gandhi is involved with his work and wants Harilal to help him with the Satyagraha in South Africa.  Harilal has this ambition of studying in London and making it big as a barrister.  He feels let down when his father wont do that, despite having a scholarship at his disposal.  Ostensibly that sets Harilal on a destructive path of deceit and dissipation.  He hits rock bottom and never comes up again, reduced to a beggars life and in the end, dying anonymously in a hospital.

According to the movie, Gandhi is dismayed by the events in his son's life but is unable to help him.  He is a forgiving father, but will not compromise on his ideals.  As we see it, destiny has a bigger role for him than of a father, and he follows it relentlessly.  The son seems destined for a nosedive and follows his destiny relentlessly.  The stories of both the father and son are handled sensitively.  As also of the two women in their lives, the mother Kasturba and the wife, Gulab.  The women seem to watch helplessly, hurt by the rift between father and son, trying to adjust and be as caring and supportive as possible till Harilal falls into such depths that they find it hard to support him any more and cast him out of their lives.

The movie is extremely well made, authentic,  and sensitively handled.  The acting by all . ALL the cast is extremely good.  Shefali Shah as Kasturba,  Bhoomika Chawla as Gulab, Darshan Jariwala(magnificent) as Gandhi, Akshaye Khanna as Harilal, Raj Zutshi in a short but extremely effective cameo.  Also, a lot of obviously talented foreign actors in bit roles.  Soundtrack is very well used with appropriate bhajans and songs making timely and unobtrusive appearence.  Old footage out of newsreels is judiciously used.  The movie is serious, seriously good and totally worth it, but only if you like serious cinema.  Kudos to Feroze Khan and Anil Kapoor.

Now the questions that beset my mind are not critical of the film, they are existential.  Why make a movie on Harilal Gandhi?  Is the intent to profile a profligate loser?  Or is it to take another look at Gandhi thru the eyes of his son?

In his lifetime, Harilal often took the help of his famous father's name to fund his selfish and useless schemes.  It is sad that even after his death, the only way he can get any attention is because his father was famous.  He would have hated that.