Ainak pehne, lathi pakde chalte the woh shaan se,
Zaalim kaape thar thar, thar thar, sun kar unka naam re,
Kad tha unka chota sa aur sarpat unki chal re
Duble se, patle se the woh, chalte seena taan ke,
Bande mein tha dum..vande mataram....
Bande mein tha dum..vande mataram....
I can’t stop humming these lines since yesterday. As you might have guessed it, I saw Lage raho Munnabhai finally!! I know I am tad bit late and all the possible discussions about the movie have exhausted by now, but still the movie needed a mention here because the movie made me fall in love with Gandhi all over again. Munna and Circuit did an awesome job but the show stealer according to me was Gandhiji!!!
"It took one remarkable man to defeat the British Empire and free a nation of 350 million people. His goal was freedom for India. His strategy was peace. His weapon was his humanity. His triumph changed the world forever." – That was the tagline of the 1982 Richard Attenborough movie titled "Gandhi". One among my favorites, I remember watching Ben Kingsley in Gandhi and going "wow!" almost every 2 minutes during the entire movie. Ben, with his awesome characterization of Gandhi, made me see beyond the man known as the Mahatma and made me fall in love with Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, for the man he was. That movie is among of the very few flicks which pa and me used to watch when I was a kid, and we used to cry and laugh at the right places together. That’s another reason I love that movie. I must have seen it 17 times but still can never get bored of it. In the movie, Gandhi was portrayed as this idealistic icon – some one to be admired and respected. Oh well, getting inspired by Gandhi in real life - the movie did not even venture out to deal with that, given the constraint of the biographical theme of the film.
Lage raho Munnabhai does just that - with Munnabhai, Gandhi sure has come a long way from the way Richard Attenborough and the world interpreted him till date - a luminary to be respected and held in awe, not someone to get inspired from, because, let's face it, Gandhism cannot survive in 21st century! However, Munnabhai Ver 2.0 brings Gandhi to the masses as a bindaas old man, who gave a hoot to the rules and who always had the right answer and the right approach to every problematic situation. Thanks to Munnabhai, Gandhism is suddenly the "in" thing!!
I was with my friend, S, just the other day, when she got a call. An animated discussion followed when the person on the other end insisted on telling the truth to someone about something, without bothering about the disastrous consequences, because that’s what Gandhi would have done!! S tried to convince her in vain. After the call, we both wondered about the why behind this sudden predilection for Gandhism among everybody? Wasn’t he there around us always? Weren’t his principles taught to us among the very first things we learnt way back in school?
Yes is the answer to both the questiones posed above, but it took a movie to bring him back in style for today’s generation! What remains to be seen is that will this penchant and love for Gandhism be there only till Munnabhai is the buzzword or will it continue to remain after that? That will be an interesting thing to watch. Sadly, the memory of "We, the people" is short lived. I am guessing Gandhi will again go back to the closed, forgotten pages of history. I would love to be proved wrong though.
All things said and done, one thing is for sure.."Bande mein tha dum!!!"
Zaalim kaape thar thar, thar thar, sun kar unka naam re,
Kad tha unka chota sa aur sarpat unki chal re
Duble se, patle se the woh, chalte seena taan ke,
Bande mein tha dum..vande mataram....
Bande mein tha dum..vande mataram....
I can’t stop humming these lines since yesterday. As you might have guessed it, I saw Lage raho Munnabhai finally!! I know I am tad bit late and all the possible discussions about the movie have exhausted by now, but still the movie needed a mention here because the movie made me fall in love with Gandhi all over again. Munna and Circuit did an awesome job but the show stealer according to me was Gandhiji!!!
"It took one remarkable man to defeat the British Empire and free a nation of 350 million people. His goal was freedom for India. His strategy was peace. His weapon was his humanity. His triumph changed the world forever." – That was the tagline of the 1982 Richard Attenborough movie titled "Gandhi". One among my favorites, I remember watching Ben Kingsley in Gandhi and going "wow!" almost every 2 minutes during the entire movie. Ben, with his awesome characterization of Gandhi, made me see beyond the man known as the Mahatma and made me fall in love with Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, for the man he was. That movie is among of the very few flicks which pa and me used to watch when I was a kid, and we used to cry and laugh at the right places together. That’s another reason I love that movie. I must have seen it 17 times but still can never get bored of it. In the movie, Gandhi was portrayed as this idealistic icon – some one to be admired and respected. Oh well, getting inspired by Gandhi in real life - the movie did not even venture out to deal with that, given the constraint of the biographical theme of the film.
Lage raho Munnabhai does just that - with Munnabhai, Gandhi sure has come a long way from the way Richard Attenborough and the world interpreted him till date - a luminary to be respected and held in awe, not someone to get inspired from, because, let's face it, Gandhism cannot survive in 21st century! However, Munnabhai Ver 2.0 brings Gandhi to the masses as a bindaas old man, who gave a hoot to the rules and who always had the right answer and the right approach to every problematic situation. Thanks to Munnabhai, Gandhism is suddenly the "in" thing!!
I was with my friend, S, just the other day, when she got a call. An animated discussion followed when the person on the other end insisted on telling the truth to someone about something, without bothering about the disastrous consequences, because that’s what Gandhi would have done!! S tried to convince her in vain. After the call, we both wondered about the why behind this sudden predilection for Gandhism among everybody? Wasn’t he there around us always? Weren’t his principles taught to us among the very first things we learnt way back in school?
Yes is the answer to both the questiones posed above, but it took a movie to bring him back in style for today’s generation! What remains to be seen is that will this penchant and love for Gandhism be there only till Munnabhai is the buzzword or will it continue to remain after that? That will be an interesting thing to watch. Sadly, the memory of "We, the people" is short lived. I am guessing Gandhi will again go back to the closed, forgotten pages of history. I would love to be proved wrong though.
All things said and done, one thing is for sure.."Bande mein tha dum!!!"
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