Where would the British cinema be without its dependable, sturdy, absolutely authoritative generation of great character actors like Gandhi stands at the quiet center. The film, Gandhi, is Richard Attenborough's tribute to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948).

They rule almost by divine right, shouldering the "white man's burden" even though they have not quite been requested to do so by the Indians.

Surtout, contrairement à d'autres personnes, elle n'était pas prétexte à des conflits. Gandhi moved there from India in 1893, when he was twenty-three. The film had a limited release in the US on Wednesday, 8 December 1982, followed by a wider release in January 1983. Around him some famous Western actors and some little known Eastern ones lend presence, if not depth, to a variety of real and composite personages.We first see Gandhi in 1948 at that fateful prayer meeting when he was shot down by a Hindu fanatic, and as millions gather for his funeral in Delhi and the world's leaders make their lapidary tributes, the film flashes back to a chronological account of his life, beginning with his arrival in South Africa in the 1890s at the age of 23. Before long Gandhi is in India, a nation of hundreds of millions, ruled by a relative handful of British. Various actors were considered over the years for the all-important title role, but the actor who was finally chosen, The movie begins in the early years of the century, in South Africa. But that is not really the point of the scene. But with a budget in excess of 20 million dollars, he and his American screenwriter, John Briley, have played fairly safe with a film that is by Berthold Brecht out of Warner Brothers.By this I mean that the texture recalls those solid, inspirational Hollywood biographies of the 1930s associated with Paul Muni, while the structure, as in Brecht's Galileo, is a succession of exemplary sequences each built around a single proposition.Ben Kingsley's performance as Gandhi, ageing 50 years in three hours, from dapper, status-conscious lawyer to emaciated ascetic in a loin-cloth, is certainly as fine as anything Muni ever did, and likely to take its place among the cinema's great historic portraits. There are complexities here; “Gandhi” is not simply a moral story with a happy ending, and the tragedy of the bloodshed between the Hindu and Muslim populations of liberated India is addressed, as is the partition of India and Pakistan, which we can almost literally feel breaking Mahatma Gandhi's heart. 'Back in 1939, John Gunther called Gandhi 'an incredible combination of Jesus Christ, Tammany Hall and your father,' and all three aspects are brought out by Ben Kingsley. The life of the lawyer who became the famed leader of the Indian revolts against the British rule through his philosophy of nonviolent protest. Mahatma Gandhi, at the height of his power and his fame, stands by the side of a lake with his wife of many years. The point, I think, comes in the quiet smile with which Gandhi says the words.

Gandhi realizes that Indians have been made into second-class citizens in their own country, and he begins a program of civil disobedience that is at first ignored by the British, then scorned, and finally, reluctantly, dealt with, sometimes by subterfuge, sometimes by brutality. In each case we watch with mounting horror as a peaceful scene turns ugly, then violent, and finally explodes in senseless slaughter.t the centre of this week's major movie is a small, bald, bespectacled figure who has walked with crowds and kept his virtue and talked with kings without losing the common touch, an astute politician with a steely sense of destiny, yet renowned for his modesty and revered by his followers as an almost saintly person.

Moreover, among his varied acting assignments, Attenborough ventured into the Indian cinema to give, in Satyajit Ray's The Chess Players, an impressive impersonation of General Outram, the self-confident imperialist who set the final seal on the British Raj that it became Gandhi's destiny to shatter.In the course of these movies Attenborough was able to explore various ways of treating his subject, and I would like to have seen him choose the flexible, investigative technique adopted by Welles in Citizen Kane (and flirted with in Carl Foreman's screenplay for Young Winston).

What is important about this film is not that it serves as a history lesson (although it does) but that, at a time when the threat of nuclear holocaust hangs ominously in the air, it reminds us that we are, after all, human, and thus capable of the most extraordinary and wonderful achievements, simply through the use of our imagination, our will, and our sense of right. Since becoming obsessed with Gandhi, he has directed O What a Lovely War, Young Winston and A Bridge Too Far, three ambivalent epics with all-star casts that brought the British establishment sharply into question. Directed by Richard Attenborough. And Ben Kingsley's performance finds the right note and stays with it.

Gandhi realizes that Indians have been made into second-class citizens in their own country, and he begins a program of civil disobedience that is at first ignored by the British, then scorned, and finally, reluctantly, dealt with, sometimes by subterfuge, sometimes by brutality. Scenes in this central passage of the movie make it clear that nonviolent protests could contain a great deal of violence.