Father of a Troubled Son; A debut feature film explores how Gandhi's ideals may have built a nation but fractured his own family.(Gandhi, My Father movie)(Movie review)

Byline: Jessica Au

Mohandas Gandhi's son Harilal lies drunk and destitute on a dirty Mumbai street. A couple of passersby find him and cart him off to a nearby hospital. There a doctor prods him to name a family member they can contact. But Harilal can barely remember his own name. Eventually he whispers: "Gandhi." Impatiently, the doctor tells Harilal that Gandhi is father to the whole Indian nation. "What is your father's name?" he asks.

The poignant scene dramatizes the central tension in the new film "Gandhi, My Father," a gripping account of the stormy relationship between one of the world's greatest political icons and his rebellious eldest son. Based on the biography "Harilal: A Life," by the Gujarati scholar Chandulal Dalal, "Gandhi, My Father"--shot in Hindi and English--sheds light on the human side of the mahatma, whose nonviolent resistance to British rule helped win India its independence in 1947. First-time film director Feroze Abbas Khan and Bollywood star turned producer Anil Kapoor blend sweeping sets and colorful costumes to create an emotionally charged period piece that occasionally verges on melodrama but is also sprinkled with genuine moments of comedy. "This is a story about a clash of principles between father and son," says Khan, who first tackled the subject in his play "Mahatma vs. Gandhi." "Harilal carried his Gandhi identity like a curse around his neck. It was something that he just couldn't shake off."

The film recounts Harilal's lifelong struggle with his father's idealistic principles and refusal to favor his own children above anybody else's. Gandhi encourages his four sons, raised in South Africa, to explore a range of blue-collar careers, from farmer to weaver--only to be disappointed by Harilal's bourgeois desire to become a barrister like his father. The seeds of contention are further sown when Gandhi gives a distant nephew, rather than Harilal, a scholarship to study abroad. Determined to forge his own path, Harilal returns to India. But after he loses his wife and young son to cholera, his despair leads him to alcoholism, brothels and money laundering. In ...