Word: mahatmas
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...government of India not only funded one-third of the movie from its treasury, but former Prime Minister Pandit Nehru and present Prime Minister Indira Gandhi (no relation to the Mahatma), along with other Indian officials, made suggestions on script, screenplay and casting, and rechecked the product throughout the shooting. This may in part account for the unfavorable light shone on Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan...
...Charleson. But Candace Bergen as Katherine Bourke White is a beautifully leaden exception and the actors occasionally get stuck in tight spots. Sheen, for instance as a New York Times reporter who follows Gandhi both in South Africa and India and reminisces wistfully about his early meetings with the Mahatma, has to say, "We were a bit like college kids trying to figure it all out." When barking his story over the phone from a distant salt mine where hundreds of unarmed Indians are beaten in a peaceful protest he screams, "Whatever moral ascendency the West had she lost...
...excitement one finds in Reds or which David Lean Created in. say. Lawrence of Arabia or Doctor Zhivago is present in abundance and animates Gandhi. Long shots of a crowd standing with umbrellas in a heavy downpour chanting for Gandhi or of converging columns of people marching behind the Mahatma as he marches to the sea to defy the government drive in this impression convincingly...
Much has been made of Ben Kingsley's acting as Gandhi, and he certainly deserves a great deal of praise for his portrayal of the sphinx-like reticence and overwhelming humility of the Mahatma. He also utters Gandhi's gospel-like sayings with enough gravity to mean something and enough reserve to keep them from sinking. Kingsley, however, is limited in what he can do with the role, for Gandhi's relationships with others are uniformly simple. His holiness, in effect, restricts him to a single dimension...
DIED. Vinoba Bhave, 87, saintly ascetic who inherited Mahatma Gandhi's role as India's spiritual conscience; after observing the tradition of embracing death with a weeklong fast, following a heart attack; in Paunar, Maharashtra, India. Slight but vigorous ("a Hercules," said Gandhi), Bhave was a loinclothed apostle of social reform who owned no possessions and tramped 45,000 miles barefoot around India, preaching nonviolence and soliciting contributions of land for the poor...