Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948) was one of the greatest personalities of the last millennium and not surprisingly he has been the focus and subject of movies of many kinds. People of this generation would perhaps wonder why no Indian ever thought of making a film on Gandhiji and why an Englishman Richard Attenborough had to take up this colossal venture in history. Well, there are valid reasons.

When British imperialism held sway over India until August 1947, film censorship was extremely rigid and even vindictive in certain aspects. The three Boards of Film Censors at Bombay, Calcutta and Madras scissored away even a few feet or frames which they felt were anti-British or Pro-Indian Freedom Movement. The Film Censor policy was carried to such ridiculous levels, as a few examples will illustrate. There was an early silent mythological film Mahatma Vidur. Vidur was the youngest brother of kings Pandu and Dhritharashtra and is believed to have formulated the system of law and justice known as ‘Vidur Neethi’. This role was played by an emaciated actor and in keeping with the character in the epic, Mahabharatham he was dressed in the simple manner in a ‘dhothi’ and an upper cloth covering his torso.  Because of the word in the title 'Mahatma', and the actor and his costume bore a close resemblance to Gandhiji, the film was refused a certificate by the Censors! Another film was titled Mahatma and the Censors refused the issue of a certificate until the title was changed!

In spite of such rigid restrictions and sadistic scissoring policy of the Censors many Indian filmmakers cleverly introduced references to Gandhiji directly or obliquely and got away with it!

One such film was the Indian Tamil film classic Thyagabhoomi (1939). Written by the celebrated Tamil writer and cult figure ‘Kalki’ (Ra. Krishnamurthi) it was produced and directed by the sadly neglected Indian film pioneer Krishnaswamy Subramaniam who was a staunch devotee of Gandhiji and an active member of the Indian National Congress party. In this classic film Papanasam Sivan, a music maestro and classic composer of Carnatic and film music played a priestly Brahmin with progressive views about ‘Untouchability’, a cause close to the heart of Gandhiji. He is damned as ‘outcast’ and driven out of his village and relocates to Madras where he lives in a slum along with ‘Harijans’. Here he works for the eradication of untouchability and in recognition of his services he is taken in a procession. As the scene unfolds on the screen, Subramaniam suddenly ‘cuts’ to a startling close-up of Mahatma Gandhi nodding his head, as if in approval! Those days such ‘jump cuts’ were unknown and even literates wondered what Mahatma Gandhi was doing in Thyagabhoomi It was indeed a fine ‘directorial touch’ but far ahead its time.

In this film the cute charming cherubic child star of that era 'Baby' Saroja (known as ‘ Shirley Temple of India ‘) sings a song in praise of Gandhi.

When this film was released the Indian National Congress party was in power at Madras with Rajaji as 'Prime Minister’ or ‘ Premier’. So the producers faced no problems. Soon after the Hitler's War began in late 1939, on a matter of principle the Congress party resigned wherever it held power in India. Immediately the British Indian government at Fort St. George promptly banned Thyagabhoomi as an anti-British, and Congress party propagandistic movie!

During that period until the country became free there have been some films where shots of Gandhiji walking or spinning on the charkha were used in films like Punjab Mail (1939, Hindi), and Bhagya Leela (1941, Tamil).

The Indian movie mogul AV. Meiyappan perhaps made the best use of Mahatma Gandhi in his box-office hit of 1947 Naam Iruvar (We Two). This film released in the early months of 1947 when freedom from the British yoke was already a certainty and euphoria had been generated over the ensuing historic event. Taking advantage of it all Meiyappan had song and dance numbers in praise of Gandhi. The celebrated cult figure of Bharathanatyam, Kamala, then 'Baby Kamala’, dances in front of the statue of Gandhi singing 'Karuna Murthy...Gandhi Mahatma' and 'Mahan...Gandhi Mahan." She also danced for the compositions of the Rebel Poet of India Mahakavi Subramania Bharathiar, ‘Aaaduvomey....’ and ‘Vetri ettu dikkum...’ Naam Iruvar also had characters greeting each other with "Jai Hind!", and wearing the white Congress caps and also spinning the charkha. All these patriotic sequences helped to make the film successful and also be hailed as classic of Tamil Cinema. Even after fifty-plus years the film is being constantly revived on DoorDarshan' (Indian national television channel) on special occasions like the Independence Day.