Making Of The Mahatma, The

Resistance without violence
Confrontation without enemies
Victory without losers

While the world thinks of Gandhi as the sainted man in khadi loincloth leaning on a cane, there is another Gandhi--a painfully shy young man struggling to formulate his ideas, the man before he became the Mahatma. This is the Mohandas K. Gandhi documented in “The Making of the Mahatma,” M.K. Gandhi went to South Africa as a shy, tongue-tied, average little man whose past was full of failure. But almost a decade later, called a saint even by those who opposed him, he was the leader of 100,000 people in one of the most remarkable experiments in history - “satyagraha,” a war without violence. He returned to India not as M.K.Gandhi but Mahatma, “great soul” - the man who was to free his country from foreign rule without firing a shot.

Based on the book Apprenticeship of a Mahatma by Fatima Meer and directed by one of India’s most respected directors, Shyam Benegal. this film documents Gandhi’s 21 years in South Africa, from age 19, and the changes which came over this anglicized, London-trained barrister as he encountered the racial discrimination and bias of the colonials first hand.. Etching Gandhi with all his faults and foibles makes him more accessible as a role model than the haloed, saintly father of the nation who could do no wrong. This young Gandhi, who had failed many, many times before, struggles with his very human temptations and fears. It shows how an ordinary man rose to extraordinary heights.