This is very unique in itself. Mahatma Gandhi neither watched films, nor did he have any interest in films, nor did he have any closeness with film artists. On the contrary, the personality of the country’s first Prime Minister Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru was different from everyone else. Pictures of many veteran film artists of the golden era along with Nehru are often seen on social media. Pt. Nehru’s photo is seen with many artists like Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand, Dilip Kumar etc. From this his inclination towards cinema can be understood. But why is it that Gandhi’s role has been seen many times on the film screen, whereas neither a biopic was made on Nehru nor was his role shown prominently in any feature film, except in a few documentaries.
The most famous film on Bapu is Gandhi starring Ben Kingsley. Made in 1982. The director of this film was Richard Attenborough. And in this film Roshan Seth played the role of Jawaharlal Nehru. While Rohini Hattangadi became Kasturba Gandhi, the role of Vallabhbhai Patel was played by Saeed Jaffrey. After this, Nehru’s most powerful and detailed role was played by the eminent director. Shyam Benegal’s India-A Discovery Was seen in the serial. This serial was telecast on Doordarshan every Sunday at 11 am from 1988 to 1989. The interesting thing is that in this serial also Roshan Seth played the role of Pt. Nehru.
Shyam Benegal created many characters of Nehru.
Before India-Ek Khoj, Shyam Benegal had made a documentary in 1984 – Nehru. This documentary was produced by Films Division of India. Whose architect was Saeed Jafri. However, if we search the records, in 1990, Kiran Kumar had made a feature film named Nehru: The Jewel of India. It was based on the life of Nehru. In this film, Girish Karnad became Motilal Nehru while Pratap Sharma became Jawaharlal Nehru. Apart from these, Anupam Kher, Rita Bhaduri and Tanuja also played roles. The film depicted Nehru’s contributions during India’s freedom struggle and after independence. But this film is not in notice anywhere. That film has been erased from people’s memory.
(Viral picture on social media)
Freedom at Midnight on Sony Liv
It is noteworthy that senior Congress party leader and MP Shashi Tharoor had written a book – Nehru: The Invention of India. This is a bestseller book. It was announced to make a web series based on this book. A trailer also arrived. However, in the year 2024, a web series named Freedom at Midnight was definitely seen on Sony Liv.
This web series is based on the book written by Dominic Lapierre and Larry Collins. It was produced and directed by Nikhil Advani. The story basically focused on the independence movement and India-Pakistan partition. In the series, Siddhant Gupta played the role of Jawaharlal Nehru while Chirag Vohra played the role of Mahatma Gandhi.
Indira more than Nehru
Pt. Nehru’s roles are rarely seen anywhere in Hindi except these films or web series. Those who appear are not very popular. Whereas, be it Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi or former PM Indira Gandhi – his personality has been shown the most in any political or historical film. His roles are quite popular. From films based on the freedom movement to Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri’s The Bengal Files – Bapu’s characters or his thoughts are often seen. Anupam Kher played Mahatma Gandhi in The Bengal Files.
Before this, Rajit Kapoor played the role of Gandhi in The Making of Mahatma directed by Shyam Benegal in 1996, Darshan Jariwala in Firoz Abbas Khan’s Gandhi My Father in 2007, and Dilip Prabhavalkar played the role of Gandhi in Lage Raho Munna Bhai in 2006. Naseeruddin Shah played Gandhi in Kamal Haasan’s Hey Ram.
At the same time, in all the films based on the Emergency of 1975 and the India-Pakistan war of 1971, including Kangana Ranaut’s Emergency, the personality of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and her political decisions have been shown prominently. Be it Meghna Gulzar’s film Sam Bahadur starring Vicky Kaushal or Shyam Benegal’s Mujeeb – the presence of Indira Gandhi is visible. Of course, Nehru’s roles are less visible in comparison to these.
Nehru existed as an idea
No such experiment was done to film the character of Nehru. Well, one thing is certain that even though Nehru’s characters are not seen in the films of the fifties, sixties or seventies, many films of that era were influenced by the Nehruvian ideology. Social consciousness and industrial development were the main voices of Nehru’s films.
Be it Dilip Kumar’s Naya Daur or Dev Anand’s Guide etc., metaphors of Nehru’s thoughts can be seen in these. Many of Raj Kapoor’s own films were influenced by the ideology of Gandhi as well as Nehru. That means Nehru was neither present directly nor indirectly.
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