Reviewing Akshaye Khanna in Gandhi-My Father

I have seen Gandhi-- My Father. It worked better in the promos. As almost every reviewer has noticed, the films loses its focus along the second half, focusing more on the Gandhi's role in history than on its father and son theme. It also become more and more theatrical, like Gandhi's speech in riot torn Calcutta. I was worried when Sreekar Prasad was chosen as the editor and he ruins the movie. Dramatic moments are cut short and boring montages given more prominence. Great moments breeze past without a proper context. Though a decent and well-made movie, it nowhere realises the emotional potential of its theme.

Now to Akshaye. Before Dil Chahta Hai happened, Akshaye's movie were confined to a single theme, that of a son who has major issues with his father. Right from his first movie, Himalay Putra, the trend continued on. Border, Aa Ab Laut Chalen, Kismat... the trend continued post DCH too in movies like Hungama and Deewaar. I think most Bollywood scriptwriters write for a star based on a set screen image and since Border was Akshaye's first hit, that character became his staple. Gandhi, My Father though not the same trap, is still the continuation of the same role. I imagined the movie would, in a sense, become the final cap of all those earlier roles and Akshaye would finally move on from this chracter after a triumph. Sadly, it doesn't.

All those movies also shared annoying feature. They all start well but lose their thread somewhere along the way and Akshaye's chracter becomes increasingly sidelined. Sadly, Gandhi,My Father continues this tradition. It does allow him a few good scenes initially but throughout the second half he is increasingly sidelined for the sake of Gandhi, so much so that his scenes gets cyclical, repetitive and take away a lot from his performance. Like all his movies before, they refuse the chance for him to build on his performance and get a credible climax. Like all his movies before, it refuses to plead his case convincingly and thus make him unable to connect with his audiences.

That said, the movie also shows enormous strides he has made as an actor. First of all, nobody who has seen this movie can fail to notice how controlled his stock mannerisms have become. I have always held that he overdoes his smling, twitching, eyebrow-raising bits only when the scene has blanks in it and he can't fill those blanks and hence goes overboard. Here, you are instantly notice how much he does with how little.

He relies more on his voice and eyes than physical gesticulations. Just notice the incommunicable emotion in his eyes in the scene where the news of Gandhi's assassination plays behind his back. He looks beautiful even in the wretchedness of a beggar sipping tea. Raj Zutshi's outburst is jarringly theatrical and this scene is too fleeting to notice but try and focus on his eyes. Is it loss? Is it victory? Relief? I couldn't tell what it was but it felt exactly right.

He has acquired pitch perfect dialogue delivery. One of the little-mentioned highlights of the movie is in a scene where Gandhi praises Harilal on a nice book he had been reading. Harilal replies by saying that he has always tried to educate himself, no matter how hard the circumstances. That's a subtle, heartbreaking rebuke and he delivers it perfectly.

His histrionics too have become finetuned. Example, the scene where he cries at his wife's death. Or the ramleela scene. Or the train station scene. He made me weep.

Gandhi-My Father affords him some great moments without ever giving him the opportunity to take the movie and make it his. It's as if he was allowed to paint a few beautiful strokes but not allowed to finish the canvas.

Gandhi-My Father is not a historic triumph for Akshaye but it does show that Akshaye has perfected his instruments and mastered the medium. From now on, it is a matter of finding a suitable platform to channel his overabundant talent.

His fans have always been sure of his talent and always irritated when high n mighty critics dismissed him off. Now, they can finally take satisfaction that no one brush off Akshaye anymore. After a decade of false starts, he has arrived as an actor. And how!