SYNOPSIS
“AN
EXEMPLARY MOTION PICTURE.
A WORK OF GRANDEUR AND SWEEPING SPECTACLE”.
--REX
REED,GQMAGAZIN
Richard
Attenborough’s devotion to GANDHI began in December
1962 when he received a phone call from Motilal . A staff
member of the Indian High Commission in London, Kothari
had a blazing resole that it was his mission to find producer
who would make a motion picture based on the life of India’s
beloved spiritual and political leader Mohandas K. Gandhi
After reading just 48 pages of a biography written about
the Mahatma (i.e. “Great Soul”), Attenborough
realized that he not only had to produce the project (he
had recently joined an independent framework of friends
in the British film community for just such a purpose),
but direct it as well. After nearly 18 years of on/off negotiations
with moguls, major film distributors and maharajahs, Attenborough
was finally able to raise the project’s $22 million
budget in the Spring of 1980. (Among the investors were
Goldcrest Films International, International Film Investors
and the National Film Development Corporation Ltd. Of India.)
With
37-years-old English stage star Ben Kingsley signed to play
the title character, GANDHI began production on November
26,1980 on location in India. Under the supervision of production
designer Stuart Craig, the film required 87 settings for
the 189 scenes contained in John Briley’s shooting
script. (The largest of these was the Sabarmati ashram [i.e.
commune], which was built on several acres of land beside
the river Jumna.) After completing location work in Delhi
– whose scenes included the spectacular recreation
of Gandhi’s funeral procession – the filmmakers
moved on to Porbander (to shoot a scene between Kingsley
and Martin Sheen) and then Bombay, where four major sequences
Saltworks protest; Gandhi’s 1915 dockside homecoming;
his arrest at the railway station on the eve of W.W.II,
and the scenes of the Mahatma’s last scenes fast,
where Kingsley was joined by Candice Bergen as photojournalist
Margaret Bourke – White).
From
Bombay, the cast and crew moved first to Pune (site of the
Aga Khan Palace, where Gandhi spent the last of his British
– imposed prison sentences) and then to Patna to film
the huge crowd that greets Gandhi’s arrival at Motihari
station. After eight days, the filmmakers completed 24 weeks
of location work at Udaipur, where the scenes with Ian Charleson
(Cbariots of Fire) were shot. After two weeks of shooting
scenes in and around London, production was completed on
May 10, 1981.
Almost
20 years to the day after he was first approached by Motilal
Kothari, Richard Attenborough’s film had its world
premiere in New Delhi, followed by its U.S. debut in December
1982.Winner of Nine Academy Awards”-Best Picture,
Best Director, Best Actor, Best screenplay, Best Cinematography,
Best Editing, Best Art Direction, Best Costumes and Best
Set Decoration-GANDHI is “one of the finest biographical
portraits the screen has ever offered us. It is moving and
inspiring”.
-
WALL STREET JOURNAL
“KINGSLEY
IS NOTHING SHORT OF ASTONISHING.”
-RICHARD SCHICKEL, TIME
| CAST |
CREDITS |
| Mahatma
Gandhi |
Ben
Kingsley |
Production |
Terence
A. Clegg |
| Kasturba
|
Rohini
Hatangadi |
Co-Producer |
Rani
Dube |
| Jawaharlal
Nehru |
Roshan
Sheth |
Music |
Ravi
Shankar |
| Sardar
Patel |
Saeed
Jaffrey |
Orchestral
Score & Additional Music |
George
Fenton |
| Margaret
Bourke-White |
Candice
Bergen |
Director
of Photography |
Billy
Williams |
| General
Dyer |
Edward
Fox |
Exicutive
Producer |
Michael
Stanley |
| Judge
Broomfield |
Trevor
Howard |
Written
By |
John
Briley |
| Lord
Irwin |
John
Gielgud |
Producer
& Directed By |
Richard
Attenborough |
| Lord
Chelmsford |
John
Mills |
|
|
| Waker |
Marteen
Sheen |
|
|
| Charlie
Andrews |
Ian
Charleson |
|
| General
Smuts |
Athol
Fugard |
| Herman
Kallenbach |
Gunter
Maria Halmer |
| Miranehn |
Geraldine
James |
| Mohamed
Ali Jinnha |
Alyque
Padamsee |
| Dada
Abdulla Khan |
Amrish
Puri |
