During my stay of fifteen years in Bahrain, for the first time, I watched an Indian movie in a Cinema hall because being an academician, we have certain limitations to go out to such places.

All believe that commercially and entertainment-wise, this movie is a box office hit in Bollywood. This movie gives a feeling of being a part of it as it carries “Pyar ke side effects’. The movie is clean and worth watching with the family.

After watching the movie, undoubtedly, Sanjay Dutt is a great actor. However, serious concerns may be raised about the way the Mahatama Gandhi , “father of nation”, our ancestor and the greatest leader of the world, has been addressed in this movie as well as his philosophy, preaching and practices. The Director of the movie should had realized that Mahatma Gandhi, his philosophy, and preaching are serious subjects and not a matter of laughing stock or just for entertainment. His name should had been addressed with great respect as he is the ancestor of India. We need to remember that thousands scholars researched on his philosophy and contributions to human kind and obtained their Doctorate degrees. Many places in the movie, Sanjay Dutt addresses him with “Hey Bapu” and not Bapuji. His philosophy has been labeled as ‘GANDHIGIRI’ and compared with ‘Dadagiri’. This is a very cheap way of addressing and communicating the respected Bapuji philosophy. His philosophy is not meant for laughing or entertainment purposes, rather it is a serious intellectual topic. I really felt concern on this aspect in the movie .

I am wondering how Censored Board of India didn’t pay attention to this aspect of the movie and it only considered that the movie has an entertainment value. Media and movies are strong medium to present and communicate the philosophies, preaching and practices of great personalities to the common people in Indian society in which there is a sharp decline in society’ values., but some standardized mechanism.

There were also news that in some parts of India, students raised voices against this movie because Gandhiji has been addressed cheaply. They wanted the movie to be banned immediately. Let me remind that in certain countries e.g. in Turkey, if people address their father of nation or ancestor cheaply, they are sent to jail.

The government should consider retaining certain areas pertaining to the life, philosophy, and practices of Bapuji, so that people can’t use them the way they want.

Gandhiji name was nominated five times for Nobel Prize. However, he would had been awarded with honor but historians often argued that British Rule in India never wanted that Gandhiji should had been honored with this prize. This could be a simple reason that a Nobel Peace Prize for Gandhiji meant world recognition for his philosophies which would meant severe defeat for Britishers. Therefore, there were strong reactions from Britishers in this regard. There were many hypotheses that the Nobel Prize Committee omission of Gandhiji perhaps was its members’ not to provoke or make British authorities unhappy.
(http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/articles/gandhi/ )