Be Prepared

Be Prepared

1986 9 September 13 Be Prepared (318) At a cost of 22 million dollars, the film on Gandhi was finally made. The director of this film, Sir Richard Attenborough, had been trying to make this film over the past twenty years, but with no success. No movie company was willing to invest in this film because it was regarded as being totally uncommercial. Yet when this film was finally made and distributed, it came to be reckoned as one of the most successful ever made. The role of Gandhiji was played by Ben Kingsley (originally called Krishna Bhanji), the son of a Gujarati doctor and an English mother. He had been engaged to play this part mainly because of his physical resemblance to Gandhiji, but it was in large measure the histrionic talent which he brought to the role which was the reason for film’s phenomenal success. But it was not such a straightforward part that he could just stroll on to the sets and begin acting. It was something which he had to build himself up to psychologically. Arriving in India one month before the shooting started, “Kingsley shaved his head, started to lose 20 pounds, got very dark in the sun, memorised practically the whole of Brilley’s script, began to paper the walls of his room with photographs of Gandhi, saw a five-hour documentary on the Mahatma and spent two hours a day learning Yoga and another two hours a day learning to use the spinning wheel.” (Newsweek, 13 December, 1982).

Ben Kingsley had to play a part in a film and for this he made tremendous preparations. Only after long years of hard struggle and perseverance was it possible for him to play this part successfully. Muslims who call themselves “The best nation”, “the chosen people” have to play a far more important part in human history. But can they ever succeed in playing this most difficult of roles without any preparation?