Mahatma: Life of Gandhi 1869-1948

Director: Vithalbhai Jhaveri

October 8, 2009 | 6.00 pm
Little Theatre, National Centre for the Performing Arts, Mumbai

This is the first complete audio-visual documentary biography of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. All events and principles of Gandhi’s life and thought are viewed as integrated parts of his quest for truth which depict permanent and universal values. The purpose of the film is to acquaint the present and future generations about his life and work and to spread his message of peace and universal brotherhood to the war-weary and fear-stricken world – a message that is bound to endure and grow amid the complexities and paradoxes of contemporary life.

The making of this documentary has involved years of meticulous research and translates Gandhi’s ideas in celluloid. The film brings together a mass of visual records not only of the 78-year life of Gandhi but also of an important period of India’s history. The earliest film shot of Gandhi used in the film is of 1912 taken during Gopal Krishna Gokhale’s visit to South Africa. The photographs, documents, books, maps and paintings used in the film are all authentic. The new coverage is based on historical and authentic facts and the voices of Gandhi and other leaders have been used wherever available and possible, documenting a man whose ideology of non-violence framed the Indian freedom struggle and inspired civil rights movements across the world.

The director of this documentary is Vithalbhai Jhaveri (1916-1985). He was a member of the Indian National Movement and did much to promote Gandhian philosophy and preserve the memory of the unique non-violent struggle for Indian independence. He made it his life’s mission to collect photographs, films and footage of the Mahatma – his life, time and work, from sources around the world. Jhaveri became one of Gandhi’s most eminent biographers and used some of the photographs and film material for his own exhibitions, films and publications.