Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara

What happened to our mainstream Hindi cinema at last? One after other it is coming out with excellent and diverse themes never dealt before. Wow ! When FTII-alumni, internationally renowned Assamese film maker Jahnu Barua and Anupam P. Kher as producer-lead actor comes together, you expect a result to be of very high value. Yes, it is, as what starts off as a touching tale about a Retd. College lecturer (Anupam Kher) who falls prey to Alzheimer disease and how the lives of everybody around him get affected ends on a very topical note of ignorance of values in today's world, very subtly. This is the second feature film in Hindi of Jahnu Barua who directed another one called Apekshaa (1984) though almost all his films are in Assamese and also based in soil there. There are some amazing performances viz. Anupam Kher and also Urmila Matondkar who is quite restrained here. More than anything this film succeeds in making any layman realize and empathize to deal with somebody close whom this disease affects. This film qualifies for select audience, as it is devoid of any of those rubbish commercial elements of forced romance and songs, hero-heroine track or inconsequential sub-plots but come across as very honest film with more substance than style. Bappi Lahiri surprised with his background score. The film has no political overtones as the title suggests but a human story. The problem? Well the story is too simplistically told so much so that to pack it in duration of 1.45 hr, the pace slows down, as the events are not too many. Also, it would be better if it covered more of the disease part and treatment part but of course that was not the focus of the film. The drama in the staged part of the courtroom also lacks that required punch. Nonetheless it put across the message very clearly and aptly and thus succeeds without taking a road to melodramatic Indian ethos or art house cinema. Also, distributor Yashraj Films deserves a pat on their shoulders for bringing a quality product, which is so contemporary, and a must especially for youth audience. A sooner Tax-free status is demanded.

I like the films of Jahnu Barua. I find him to be an honest filmmaker. He has made some very interesting movies--the best of which I consider to be "Papori," made in 1986. Any director would like to aspire to make a bigger budget film, with bigger names in Indian cinema. I guess this was the genesis of Barua's well-meaning effort called "Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara." Forget the melodrama of a senior member of the family suffering from a serious disease (why do so many Indian films need to have this ingredient in the plot?) the viewer will be able to see the honest Barua at work: the modern India forgetful of the values of individuals who gave birth to the world's largest surviving democracy, the dishonest lover who is scared of annoying his parents, the university students who treat a demented teacher with respect and courtesy, and the love and affection of grown-up adults for their parents. These are social values that exist in India today that Yash Chopra and other producers bank on to make a film successful. These are the "feel good" social credentials of Indian cinema.

In this film, the real Jahnu stands up as he succeeds in extracting a marvelous controlled performance from Urmila Matondkar, while Anupam Kher does his usual over-the-top melodrama playing to the gallery as he did in "Saaransh." Yet Jahnu, who usually is careful with his script mixes up Alzheimer's disease (first half of the movie) with delusion and psychological after-effects of a childhood incident (later half of the film) and the cure for it. I am not a medical expert but the two disorders seem to be strange bedfellows to manifest itself in the same individual.

The film, though well-intentioned, lacks the intensity of "Papori" comparatively a small budget film because it plays to the gallery. We love this film because it is more honest than the Bollywood kitsch and has some fine performances. This was evident at its screening at the recent Dubai Film Festival. For many in the audience it was the first film of Barua they had seen. And they liked it. If you loved this film (which is technically superior to his previous films, thanks to the bigger budget) do see Barua's "Papori" or even the less impressive "Aparoopa" where the real talent of Jahnu Barua emerges and impresses you even more.

Subtlety is rarely seen in Hindi movies. Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara has plenty of it. The humor, the score, the acting and the story, all come together to make this wonderfully understated film. Yet this movie shows so much depth and understanding of human nature that its able to elicit from the viewer, genuine regard for its characters.

A lot of other reviewers have already talked about how excellent this is. So I will only urge you to watch it. The highlight is certainly Anupam Kher's performance which is layered and brilliant. The day that the Indian audience and critics are able to recognize performances and films like these is the day India can once again be proud of its cinematic history.

This is Uttam Chaudhry's (played by Anupam Kher) home. An acclaimed scholar of Hindi and now a retired professor, Chaudhry is a man of principles and values. Professor Chaudhry suffers from frequent bouts of forgetfulness. What looked like a case of absent-mindedness before appears to be turning into a serious illness.He forgets that he has retired, and reaches college only to discover it's a chemistry lecture. He has a hard time coming to terms with the fact that it has been one and a half years since he lost his dear wife. He loses it altogether when Trisha's potential father-in-law places an ashtray and used teacup on a newspaper issue, which has Mahatma Gandhi's photograph. The professor's condition completely deteriorates and he starts blaming himself for being the man accidentally responsible for Gandhi's assassination. So what is his condition? Alzheimer's? Dementia? Schizophrenia? Scientific definitions offered are plenty, but the root cause of this sickness is much more deep-rooted than it appears. That's what makes Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara such a superbly multilayered presentation

Once an English film director was reported expressing surprise why so many Bollywood films come out every year and almost none of them carries a story except filmy romance and skin-show. Here is the answer- Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara, a film by renowned director Jahnu Barua. With Anupam Kher and Urmila's superb acting and Barua's excellent direction the film deserves to be a must see. Bollywood industry should produce much more films of this kind instead of its tradition of producing rubbish films. Direction: 10/10; Acting- Anupam Kher: 10/10, Urmila: 9/10; Story: 9/10; Photography: 10/10; Dialogue: 9/10; Music(Background): 10/10.