Filmmaker Sudhir Mishra has shared a glimpse into his upcoming film on Mahatma Gandhi, with Manoj Bajpayee playing the freedom fighter. On Gandhi Jayanti, Mishra wrote about the idea behind the film and made it clear that he does not want to present Gandhi through a conventional, reverential lens.
“I’m making a film on Gandhi,” Mishra wrote in a social media post, describing it as a story about a period in Gandhi’s life that he feels is not widely understood. He also said he was not approaching the subject as a ‘hagiographer’.
Gandhi was a man who could not leave himself alone: Sudhir Mishra
For Mishra, it seems like the film is less about the familiar image of Gandhi and more about the man who kept questioning himself. He writes about someone who listened to his critics because he was willing to consider that they might be right, and who was prepared to change after hearing them.
The filmmaker’s note also touches on Gandhi’s relationship with his own followers and the people around him. Rather than focusing only on his confrontation with the British, Mishra wants to explore the conflicts Gandhi faced within his own circle and the difficult choices that came with them.
What you will be watching is not a saint: Sudhir Mishra
Mishra’s post gives a clearer sense of what audiences can expect from his take on Gandhi. ‘What you will be watching is not a saint. That is the lie we tell so that we may sit still, and the sitting still is the crime. What you are watching is a man coming apart in public and refusing the mercy of doing it in private: furious, and not with the enemy. That would have been too simple, but with his own, the people he had carried and who had carried him, who had learned every word of his language and not one syllable of what the words were for. He had given them a vocabulary. They had made of it a career. Most chose comfort, or despair, which is only comfort dressed in black. He wrenched himself out of both. He never said his was the only road,’ the filmmaker wrote on X.
Read the post here:
Manoj Bajpayee will be seen in the role of Mahatma Gandhi
Manoj Bajpayee will play Gandhi for the first time in his career. The actor’s first look was unveiled in September, showing him in Gandhi’s familiar white attire, round spectacles and carrying a walking stick. The film is directed by Mishra and produced by Anubhav Sinha and Narendra Hirawat.
The project, currently titled Gandhi and My Mother, focuses on a relatively brief period rather than attempting to cover Gandhi’s entire life. Reports have described it as a 21-day passage around the time of India’s Independence. Waheeda Rehman is also part of the film and plays Putlibai, Gandhi’s mother. Divya Dutta and Saurabh Shukla are among the other members of the cast. The film has been shooting in Lucknow.
No release date for Gandhi and My Mother has been announced yet.
Also Read:
Manoj Bajpayee to play Mahatma Gandhi; Anubhav Sinha and Sudhir Mishra team up for untold story
