Yesterday was the 64th Independence Day of India. As usual I was jobless and happened to watch the movie Gandhi on sony pix. (My dad has been persuading me to watch it since I was 4yrs old when I won the awards for speeches on Gandhi’s biography. I remember precisely every time the competition is over on the mornings of 15th Aug, he would hurry down the award giving ceremony and rush back home to watch this movie. I’ve had never been keen on it to watch. This time I made it)
The movie starts with the day of Gandhi’s death where he quotes ‘When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it--always.’
It shows how Gandhi had been successful in winning the rights of Indians in South Africa, his journey to India and non- cooperation and non-violence. The movie also fables on how Gandhi fought with the Muslim communities and Jinnah against the India – Pakistan partition.
It’s a four hour movie and a lot slow paced compared to the contemporary movies (Eg: Avatar which I also watched yesterday). At the end Gandhi’s death scene has been recalled from the beginning of the movie.
More than the movie, what moved me most was the intermittent Hero Honda ad by AR Rehman singing ‘Hai Hum me Hero’. The ad has a gymnast, a dancer in the India challenge TV show, an old Sikh climbing a hill, an IAF pilot and a bungee jumper. The gymnast falls in the practice sessions but wins the grand finale, the dancer battles the challenge and wins, the Sikh views the panoramic view from the top of the hill and by that they show that all of us have a Hero in Us.
With the ad in the background, I concluded that Gandhi had a big job to do and so does Anna Hazare or our most gallant army soldiers. Gandhi was identified as the leader of the Independence struggle and he did his job great. Our army officers are also doing their job right. I say anybody who does his job right without any flaw is a Hero. Every day at 11 o’ clock, a BBMP guy drops at my door to collect garbage and he’s never missed a minute ever. I always wonder how someone can be so perfect. If his effort is very ordinary – so is Gandhi’s. I find a Hero in that garbage collector.
We are all heros in our own self because we have a goal to achieve and we are all doing it just right or we are only ordinary including Mahatma Gandhi. For now let’s just say ‘Mujme hai Hero'.
