Gandhi: The film, featuring Ben Kingsley and Rohini Hattangadi as Mahatma & Kasturba Gandhi, is based on the life of ‘bapu’. ‘Gandhi’ covers all important incidents from Mahatma Gandhi’s life from the incident when he was thrown off a train in South Africa in 1893 to his assassination and death in 1948. The much-acclaimed 1982 film went on to win eight Oscar Awards as well as 26 other prestigious film awards including Golden Globe, BAFTA among others.
The Making of The Mahatma: The 1996 film, starring Rajat Kapoor as Mahatma Gandhi and directed by Shyam Benegal, too is based on bapu’s life journey and includes his struggle against Apartheid, racial discrimination in Britian and his return to India. The film is based on Fatima Meer’s (film’s screenplay writer) book ‘The Apprenticeship of Mahatma’. Lead actor Rajat Kapoor was praised for his performance and he even won the Silver Lotus Award for Best Actor for ‘The Making of Mahatma’.
Hey Ram: Featuring Kamal Haasan, Rani Mukerji, Shah Rukh Khan, Hema Malini among others, ‘Hey Ram’ got released in 2001 and received highly positive reviews. The film’s story revolved around India’s partition and the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi by Nathuram Godse. The film also got embroiled in controversies as political parties protested against perceived negative depiction of Gandhi. ‘Hey Ram’ was selected for submission to the Oscars in 2000 by Film Federation of India, but was not nominated. Whereas, in India, the film won three National Awards.
Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara: The film starring Anupam Kher and Urmila Matondkar in lead roles released in 2005. The film tells the story of a professor named Uttam (Anupam Kher) who is suffering from a brain disease called ‘Dementia’ (most common type of dementia is Alzheimer).He believes that he killed Mahatma Gandhi. Her daughter Trisha (Urmila Matondkar) tries to find out if her father is responsible for Gandhi’s death or not. The film failed to do well at the box-office but got huge critical acclaim for storyline as well as the performances. Anupam Kher won a Special Jury Award at the National Film Awards for his performance.
Lage Raho Munnabhai: The film, starring Sanjay Dutt, Arshad Warsi and Vidya Balan in important roles, saw actor Dilip Prabhavalkar as Mahatma Gandhi. In the film, lead character ‘Munnabhai’ starts seeing the spirit of Mahatma Gandhi. He starts practicing ‘Gandhigiri’ (a neologism for Gandhism) to help others. The comedy-drama that released in 2006 got great response from critics as well as audience. The film won many awards and was the first Hindi film to be shown at the United Nations.
Gandhi My Father: The film, featuring Darshan Zariwala and Akshaye Khanna in main roles, explores the strained relationship between Mahatma Gandhi and his son Harilal Gandhi. The film’s story is about Mahatma Gandhi’s failure as a father. Upon release in 2007, ‘Gandhi My Father’ got good reviews and the actors got appreciated for their performances as well. Darshan Zariwala won a Special Jury Award at the National Film Awards for his portrayal of Mahatma Gandhi.