The Age from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Page 14

14 THE AGE, Wednesday 9 March 1983 edited by Anthony Clarke Neil Jillett reviews the film 'Gandhi' and talks to its star. Ben Kingsley. Epic telling of a great man's life 5 He says: "Without the experts ence of playing the big Shake speare plays, on a stage facing 1500 people, I mink I would have got to India and collapsed in terror, not only under the enormous weight of responsibility but also under the scrutiny of the thousands of Indians who came to watch the filming. "The stage gave me stamina, and stamina, physical and intellec-. tual stamina, is a minimal require-.

ment for playing Gandhi, because he was at 79 astonishingly vigorous, with the stamina- of a marathon runner. "I never thought' of myself as Gandhi. There is always a pretty secure division between myself and what I am making. I have to share that with other craftsmen who have a blank sheet of paper or canvasor whatever. I have to have that distance to jump over.

It's that gap, that o'er-leap, that is creation that's exciting. "If the two sides of the. gap merge I think it's time to seek help. It does happen to people. Di-.

saster! They dont know where their perimeters are any more." If Ben Kingsley has no delusions about being another -Mohandas K. Gandhi, he does feel that the Ma- hatma's life and message have in- fluenced him. "He was a political genius in the fullest, richest sense of the term," be says, "if you study a genius for six months it tends to mobilise your thoughts is slightly differ- ent way than before, a better way. It gave me, as an actor and a man. THE FILM RICHARD ATTENBOROUGH'S monumental film biography, 'Gandhi' (Midcity from tomor-.

row), opens with a sensible caution printed across the screen: "No man's life can be encompassed in one telling." Attenborough has chosen to give an epic scale to this telling, and what we are shown is the public impact of the public life of one of this century's great men. Although a biography on a more intimate scale might have come closer to the truth about Gandhi (and shown us less history), Attenborough's choice of form is understandable. The lure of world-shaking events, the broad landscapes of the subcontinent and the availability of a huge cast in a nation populated with extras 300,000 appear in the funeral scene, we are told must have been hard to resist. The result is a respectful, sweep-ingly handsome film (20 years in gestation and eventually costing $22 million) that keeps a fairly firm hold on one's attention throughout its three hours, although it does occasionally sag into deadly earnestness, particularly in the second half. And while this is a good and worthy film rather than a great one, there is greatness in the performance of the British actor Ben Kingsley, who, as the Mahatma (Great Soul), is rarely off the screen.

Kingsley manages to look like Gandhi at every stage in the 56 years of his life covered by the film, from the timid yet vigorous 23-year-old radical lawyer in South Africa to the round-shouldered, bandy old father of his people. This is no god or walking myth up there on the screen. Kingsley exemplifies the view, shared by Attenborough and Louis Fischer, the American journalist whose biography largely shaped the film, that Gandhi's outstanding qualities were his humanity and his humaneness. There is a resolute consistency in the complexity of Kingsley's portrayal. His Gandhi has humility and pride, rigidity and a willingness to compromise, tenderness and toughness.

He is alight with charm, and his humor, though always unexpected, is never out of character. The events of and around Gandhi's life are shown in a sometimes jerky succession of set-pieces rather than in a developing sequence. Surprisingly, given all those extras, the best of these set-pieces are not the most crowded. The heart of Gandhi's message of peace and equality comes across most effectively when the screen is busy rather than overpopulated for instance, in his address to a public meeting in South Africa, and in the confrontation between passive resisters and baton-wielding soldiers and police at the gates of a mine and on the outskirts of a salt pan. It is as if Attenborough's unimaginative style is an advantage.

We are shown courage and anger head-on, without camera tricks, and the objectivity of this approach (Billy Williams and Ronnie Taylor were in charge of the photography) has an emotional force that a more subjective treatment might not have achieved. And while this film is not regularly concerned with nuances, most of its finest moments are presented in a low key. Among these are the jailed In his second appearance as an American journalist Martin Sheen seems to be playing the continuation of a scene set on another continent and about 20 years earlier. Some characters age abruptly; others not at all. The faults of Attenborough's direction and of John Briley's script which has lapses into potted history delivered as hectoring, stilted dialogue must be set against brave attempts to grapple with the intricacies of events and personality.

If the film ignores the prickli-ness of the relationship between the Mahatma and Nehru, it does convey how much Gandhi admired the achievements of the British Empire while despairing at its follies. If it glosses over the importance of his flamboyant celibacy or the nuisance caused to others by his ostentatious poverty, it does explore the paradox of how his dedication to non-violence could provoke bloodshed. In a film backed by the Indian Government it is not surprising that there is no hint of how the lesson of Gandhi's life has been largely forgotten by his own country since his assassination in 1948. But the film blames Hindus as much as Moslems for the inter-communal violence at the time of independence; and if Jinnah is shown as one of the villains of the piece, a view justified by history, Attenborough seems to deal with him fairly, even gently. The impression left by 'Gandhi' is of a film grand in scope yet often pedestrian in style.

Except in the acting of Kingsley and some of the others, it shows little interest in what happens beneath the surface of history. But it is still instructive. should again turn himself into a small, brown old man. The range of offered roles "from the fantastic to the romantic to the very, very decent to the utterly immoral" confirms that he has not been typecast by the success of 'Gandhi'. Since he finished work on 'Gandhi' two years ago, he has starred, as a London publisher, in a film of Harold Pinter's play 'The Betrayal' with Jeremy Irons.

A more recent role, on stage and TV, was as the eccentric 19th century English actor Edmund Kean in a one-man play directed by his wife Alison Sutcliffe. Ben Kingsley was born Krishna Bhanji in Yorkshire 39 years ago, the son of an Indian father (a doctor) and an English mother (a model). He was brought up in Manchester. After 20 years' experience he regards himself as essentially a stage actor in the English classical tradition. He has played Hamlet for the Royal Shakespeare Company and in Ben Jonson for the National Theatre.

His career has spread across the dramatic board from Chekhov to Brecht "It would be silly to say that my physical appearance was irrelevant to the choice of me as Gandhi," he says, "but it has otherwise not been an Influence in my career. If not anything that caught the imagination or curiosity of audiences or journalists." His voice is light but precise and strong. He calls it "an actor's plastic kind that can become practically Sharp ears can pick up the faintest, underlay from his Manchester youth. For Gandhi, he resisted any temptation to adopt what is usually called a "Peter Sellers Having listened to newsreels and other records, he says that Gandhi had impeccable English, with a hint of a South African accent and a slight increase in Indian rhythms as he grew older. Before 'Gandhi' Mr Kingsley appeared in only one film (as a bad-die in the 1972 Alistair Maclean thriller 'Fear is the Key), and he had some curiosity, but no burning desire, to do more screen work.

Now he is looking forward to the theatre and the cinema enriching his career in a dual way: "I'd like my contact with a live audience to feed the camera, while at the same time the scrutiny of the camera and my attention to the detail of the moment will, I hope, feed my stage work." When he came to play Gandhi he was grateful for his stage experience with such great directors of the classics as Peter Brook, Peter Hall and Trevor Nunn. Mctura: FIONA McOOUCAU. stage for endurance on the screen. independence and taught campaigners around the world the tactics of passive resistance. But it is unlikely that his memories of playing the title role in the film 'Gandhi' will fade along with his skin.

"If I am to be remembered for the rest of my life as that actor who played Gandhi." he says, "I shall be happy, because personally I'm proud to be associated with the film. Some actors have been remembered for less fortunate experiences which they wish to bury." And if next month he does not win the Oscar for which he has been nominated, the disappointment will not overwhelm him. "The Oscar isn't hanging over my head," he says. "I'm very exatea about the nomination because I share it with four other chaps (Jack Lemmon, DusUn Hoffman, Paul Newman and Peter OToole) who are my heroes. I've watched everything they've done with admiration and affection, and to be placed on that plateau with them is astonishing." As 'Gandhi' does booming business around the world there have been some critical reservations about the film, but none of any significance about Mr Kings-ley's performance.

On screen, in voice, manner and appearance, he seems to have been born to reincarnate the Mahatma. It is hard to imagine him in any other role. Yet, while the film has brought him many offers to play on stage and in television and films, there has been no suggestion that he FOB SETTER OR WORSE HenRYEHEfiRYE UiePBOClftlMTHlS TO BC rVMS NISHT OFF; CmoRry6. TT7) thewiIahdofid (fSv IcoNFocNTnt nNOWUEWWHiAl 00 you MIND IF I STT I DflDSfflS YOU'RE. I WhtQM csssi rasa Gandhi's banishment of the Anglican missionary Charlie Andrews (a superb study of gently muscular Christianity by Ian Charleson) from the campaign for India's independence; the reluctant sentencing of Gandhi to a six-year term by an English judge (remarkably restrained Trevor Howard); the realisation by the Moslem leader Ali Jinnah (a suavely bitter Alyque Padamsee) that Gandhi is a better man and a more forceful leader than he is; and Gandhi's challenging acceptance of the offer by a group of aristocratic young students to share his work.

The Indian actors usually outperform their white colleagues. There is faultless work by to name only three Rohini Hattan-. gady (Gandhi's alternately spirited and subservient wife), Roshan Seth (Nehru) and Saeed Jaffrey (Sardar PateeL another of Gandhi's lieutenants). Too often the film becomes a parade of distinguished acting by major and minor British stars in bit parts, led by John Gielgud doing his usual distressed-tortoise routine as Lord Irwin. And, perhaps as a concession to the American box-office, Candice Bergen turns up as a 'Life' photographer.

The time and space devoted to Bergen's unnecessary appearance could have been better used in sorting out some of the film's loose ends and bringing order to its haphazard chronology. It is easy, for example, to get the impression that Gandhi was born in South Africa, not India. Both world wars, crucial to his campaign strategy, slide by almost unnoticed. The Amritsar massacre (a savagely brilliant piece of cinematography) comes out of nowhere. Name.

Address. Postcode. Telephone: An the Home Invest rate and the government For Officer Sydney 229 3755; Please Application Form. Collins Street, is Ben Kingsley: stamina from the and it is entertaining. Few films have come as close as this one.

does to giving us the truth about a great man's life and times. THE ACTOR THE British actor Ben Kingsley looks out across the bronzed lawns and shrivelling trees of the Fitzroy Gardens. They remind him, appropriately enough, of the parks of New Delhi. "No," he says in answer to the obvious question, "I never thought I was Gandhi." Nor, now that his complexion has lost its sedulously cultivated tan, does be look much like the great leader who guided India to the Treasury. Canberra.

vjsw vmco 5 a kind of discipline I didn't have before. i "If I have ideals, they're less romantic now, less sloppy." For Ben Kingsley, the actor's craft is "to occupy a He is "Intrigued by vulnerabilities. The greatest of us are vulnerable. Sometimes at the centre of great- ness is that area of sensitivity, and it's that as an actor I try to find: -how that can be mined, explored, exploited or disguised in terms of ail snades of behavior. I still have a great appetite to explore and share that as a storyteller, and I cant see that appetite waning." When Mr Kingsley went to India to film 'Gandhi' it was his first visit there.

Unjike the writer V. S. Nai-pauL another English-educated man of Indian ancestry, he was not horrified by what he saw. "I think I have to be an optimist," Mr Kingsley says. "Naipaul and I just had totally different perspectives.

Where he saw degradation and humiliation and filth, I saw valor, pragmatism and invention. I had a beautiful response to India." And the response was, perhaps, as much that of an actor as that of a Yorkshireman who was born Krishna Bhanji: "I dont know whether I loved India because in a sense I 'was Romeo and she was Juliet fry Lynn Jolwutow in VICES, Tug FiRm-sl nrw piece OF WQKK. JL answer: vactafe (ws id) means overlaid a stickt layer sticUhg or adhering and having gtuti-neue1 conaistandi. Front the Late Latin vacidus. (6) i I.

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