Gandhi’s life has been painstakingly chronicled over the years by playwrights and movies, and performers have gone to considerable efforts to embody Gandhi.Here is a list of five performances that, in our opinion, fully reflect Bapu’s status.
Dilip Prabhavalkar- ‘Lage Raho Munna Bhai’
Dilip Prabhavalkar portrays Gandhi in this Raju Hirani film from 2006 with a delightful, funny warmth that captured the hearts of millions of moviegoers. The comedy with Sanjay Dutt as the lead showed how the Gandhian tenets of honesty, truthfulness, humanism, and nonviolence can be used to resolve almost any problem in life.
Chirag Vohra- ‘Shobhayatra’
Chirag Vohra portrays Gandhi in the teleplay “Shobhayatra” by Zed Theatre, but in a unique way. The drama, written by Shafaat Khan, emphasises the loss of the ideals that helped secure our country’s freedom. It shows a few people who are ready to participate in a “Shobhayatra” disguised as Gandhi, Subhash Chandra Bose, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rani Laxmibai, and Babu Genu but who don’t actually share their ideals.
Naseeruddin Shah- ‘Hey Ram’
The 2000 Kamal Haasan film “Hey Ram,” which explores the futility of hatred and violence, gave the veteran actor his long-awaited opportunity to portray Gandhi. The role, despite its briefness, was painful and profound because it demonstrates how mutual trust can help communities overcome crises of faith and how only nonviolence, not hatred, can change people for a better future.
Ben Kingsley- ‘Gandhi’
The Richard Attenborough-directed classic Mahatma biography, which stars Ben Kingsley in an Oscar-winning performance, was a huge international hit when it was released in 1982. At the 55th Academy Awards, the movie earned 11 nominations, and it took home eight of them, including one for costume designer Bhanu Athaiya.
Rajit Kapur
Rajit Kapur played Gandhi in this 1996 Shyam Benegal film during the 21 significant years in South Africa that helped to mould him into a leader who would later wield such moral influence that people like Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr. would be influenced by him.
