Film Shows Gandhi As Father to a Nation But Not His Troubled Son

To Martin Luther King, he was "the little brown saint of India - the first person to lift the love ethic of Jesus above mere interaction". Lord Louis Mountbatten, the last viceroy of India, compared him to Buddha.

For millions of Indians Mahatma Gandhi, who led the country to freedom through non-violent protest, was simply "Bapu": father to a nation. But this, as a film out tomorrow shows, was not the view of his eldest son.

Gandhi, My Father is a celluloid exploration of the troubled relationship between India's politician saint and his first child, Harilal. The movie portrays the Mahatma as an unforgiving patriarch whose ideals shaped a nation, but often at the expense of his family.

Harilal converted briefly to Islam before his death as an alcoholic, just months after Gandhi was assassinated while walking in the grounds of Birla House in Delhi in 1948.

This bitter, tragic conclusion was not how their kinship began. Harilal was known as "chhotta Gandhi" or "young Gandhi" while fighting colonial rule in South Africa with his father. As a teenager he developed "fasting" as a way of shaming his opponents into submission. It was a tactic Gandhi perfected against the British.

Their falling out originates in the first decade of the 20th century when Gandhi, then a brilliant lawyer, refused to bend the rules and get Harilal a scholarship so that the boy could go the London and become a barrister like this father.

Gandhi thought this would be construed as nepotism, but his son considered it a family betrayal. The result was four decades of rancor. Gandhi publicly condemned and disowned his son on a number of occasions while Harilal indulged in drink, prostitutes and a life of petty crime.

Later the Indian independence leader said his "greatest regret" in his life was the two people he could "never convince": his former friend turned foe, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, who founded Pakistan, and "and my own son, Harilal Gandhi".

Anil Kapoor, the movie's producer, said he got the idea from a play about the Gandhi family. "It was a great untold story on film. In my view it was not that Gandhi failed as a father rather that it was a failed relationship ... Great leaders have to make great sacrifices."

Mr Kapoor, a veteran Bolllywood actor, told the Guardian he had shown the movie to South Africa's first black president, Nelson Mandela, and his successor, Thabo Mbeki. Both had become "emotional" watching the film. "They both had family problems which sprung from being leaders."

The film is based on a biography of Harilal Gandhi, recognized by most scholars as the most authentic record of his life. The film, shot in two languages - Hindi and English - in just 100 days, sweeps from 1906 to 1948.

Some followers of the Gandhian tradition have condemned the film - without having seen it. Razi Ahmad, 70, who runs a research centre devoted to Gandhi, wrote letters to India's prime minister and president asking them to block the movie because "the name of Mahatma Gandhi should not be used for commercial purposes".

However the descendants of Gandhi have endorsed the movie. In an interview with the Guardian, Tushar Gandhi, the Mahatma's great grandson, said the film was a "very realistic portrayal. Bapu knew the leadership potential of Harilal but he self-destructed. Harilal could not take his British-educated barrister father taking on this impoverished saintly persona. It tore both their hearts".