Sir Richard Attenborough - A tribute
Sir Richard Attenborough - A tribute
Scarcely would you find in the world of Visual arts and drama, an artist singularly dedicated to a project over three decades, channeling his entire life force to the consummation of a world vision and philosophy that needed an audacious and honest interpretation in modern times; surmounting obstacles - financially, bureaucratically and physically, in bringing to screen the biography of a man whose life was nothing short of a miracle in an age and time that he “walked” on earth, a life widely acknowledged by the global community as befitting a saint amongst statesmen in an otherwise incarnadined history of independence struggles. Richard Attenborough, who created the celluloid consecration of Mahatma Gandhi quietly left us a couple of days ago, without a whimper, in the fullness of ninety one years. His wife Sim, with whom he had lived his entire married life of seventy odd years lay lost and unperturbed in her delusionary dream world caused by aging dementia in the next room. She is ninety years… A life intertwined, so full, energetic and intensely passionate.
The Attenborough’s were an academically oriented family. The Second World War transformed their lives and gave three boys (Richard, David and John) their distinctive vocations to follow. The high moral and ethical standards were evident when their parents adopted two Jewish girls from the holocaust, bought them to England, educated and gave them a life of dignity and opportunity. Richard joined the air force, permanently damaged an ear, and began taking part in an air force filming unit covering the war. Our director learnt the rudiments of movie making in the midst of commotions on a battlefield!!! The Theater and movies began to absorb more of Richard’s time, and soon, he was performing supporting roles in films. Interestingly, Richard was a part of the original cast of Agatha Christie’s drama “The Mouse Trap” - an acclaimed mystery that premiered in 1952, and is still running in St Martin’s theatre in London. A record for the longest performing play in history of Drama (My niece got to see the play on her tour of London in 2011!!!…). Richard got a royalty of ten percent on profits, which came in handy when Gandhi went through rough weather during its production.
Never was a film so painstakingly made, or with so much passion. It took Richard thirty years to conceive and execute this panoramic drama. Numerous setbacks: death of key bureaucrats who supported the venture, untimely demise of Nehru whose blessing was an impetus to make this movie, ill-famed declaration of emergency by his daughter Indira disrupting the project by years, the vacillating consistency of his actors, financial ebbs and flows, controversies and legal impediments - any of which would have deterred a lesser man to give up, but not Richard. The decades of preparation finally took off on 26th November 1980 and ended on 10th May 1981; just under a year, when the master rolled out his lifelong ambition into rolls of reels. And what a massive enterprise it was! Mobilizing resources by thousands, orchestrating critical historical moments in Gandhi’s life with an accuracy which is staggering in his truthfulness and focus; getting Ben kingsley transform himself into Gandhi, because nothing less can do justice to this epic; capturing the essential world vision and deep philosophy of Nonviolence that ran through India’s independence struggle, occasionally broken by rapacious strokes of bloodshed; the genesis of split between Hindu and Muslim, Gandhi’s emotional dilemma and possibly his only political failure - all of them needed to told with a gusto and impeccable integrity. Richard knew that he was carving out an epochal moment in cinematic history, and he left nothing to chance in creating this masterpiece.
The world shook its head in wonder and disbelief when the movie was screened in early 1983. In three hour and three minutes of screenplay, Gandhi was bought back to life with a vividity and realism that was not only kaleidoscopic in conception, but more importantly, sensitive and well balanced. The meticulous research Attenborough had bought to the subject, gave a new interpretation and relevance to Gandhi’s life and work for modern generations. It was an artistically complete film. With this biopic, Like Cecil demille or David Niven, Richard had entered the pantheon of select few movie makers - whose style, finesse and narrative brilliance set new bench marks for historical dramas. Not surprisingly, it swept almost all the Academy awards that year, including the Best director for Richard Attenborough.
Einstein’s famous quote : “Generations to come, it may well be, will scarce believe that such a man as this one ever in flesh and blood walked upon this Earth…” was perhaps slightly mistaken, because he had not made allowances for Sir Richard Attenborough and his “Gandhi”. Now, generations to come will not only believe, but also get to see in celluloid flesh and blood the life story of a man who transformed the meaning of political struggle for mankind forever, giving it a spiritual twist that only a mind fermented in Indian tradition could have conceived. We shall be grateful to him for this magnificent tribute.
Rest blissfully sir... It has been a full life, well led…
God bless...
Scarcely would you find in the world of Visual arts and drama, an artist singularly dedicated to a project over three decades, channeling his entire life force to the consummation of a world vision and philosophy that needed an audacious and honest interpretation in modern times; surmounting obstacles - financially, bureaucratically and physically, in bringing to screen the biography of a man whose life was nothing short of a miracle in an age and time that he “walked” on earth, a life widely acknowledged by the global community as befitting a saint amongst statesmen in an otherwise incarnadined history of independence struggles. Richard Attenborough, who created the celluloid consecration of Mahatma Gandhi quietly left us a couple of days ago, without a whimper, in the fullness of ninety one years. His wife Sim, with whom he had lived his entire married life of seventy odd years lay lost and unperturbed in her delusionary dream world caused by aging dementia in the next room. She is ninety years… A life intertwined, so full, energetic and intensely passionate.
The Attenborough’s were an academically oriented family. The Second World War transformed their lives and gave three boys (Richard, David and John) their distinctive vocations to follow. The high moral and ethical standards were evident when their parents adopted two Jewish girls from the holocaust, bought them to England, educated and gave them a life of dignity and opportunity. Richard joined the air force, permanently damaged an ear, and began taking part in an air force filming unit covering the war. Our director learnt the rudiments of movie making in the midst of commotions on a battlefield!!! The Theater and movies began to absorb more of Richard’s time, and soon, he was performing supporting roles in films. Interestingly, Richard was a part of the original cast of Agatha Christie’s drama “The Mouse Trap” - an acclaimed mystery that premiered in 1952, and is still running in St Martin’s theatre in London. A record for the longest performing play in history of Drama (My niece got to see the play on her tour of London in 2011!!!…). Richard got a royalty of ten percent on profits, which came in handy when Gandhi went through rough weather during its production.
Never was a film so painstakingly made, or with so much passion. It took Richard thirty years to conceive and execute this panoramic drama. Numerous setbacks: death of key bureaucrats who supported the venture, untimely demise of Nehru whose blessing was an impetus to make this movie, ill-famed declaration of emergency by his daughter Indira disrupting the project by years, the vacillating consistency of his actors, financial ebbs and flows, controversies and legal impediments - any of which would have deterred a lesser man to give up, but not Richard. The decades of preparation finally took off on 26th November 1980 and ended on 10th May 1981; just under a year, when the master rolled out his lifelong ambition into rolls of reels. And what a massive enterprise it was! Mobilizing resources by thousands, orchestrating critical historical moments in Gandhi’s life with an accuracy which is staggering in his truthfulness and focus; getting Ben kingsley transform himself into Gandhi, because nothing less can do justice to this epic; capturing the essential world vision and deep philosophy of Nonviolence that ran through India’s independence struggle, occasionally broken by rapacious strokes of bloodshed; the genesis of split between Hindu and Muslim, Gandhi’s emotional dilemma and possibly his only political failure - all of them needed to told with a gusto and impeccable integrity. Richard knew that he was carving out an epochal moment in cinematic history, and he left nothing to chance in creating this masterpiece.
The world shook its head in wonder and disbelief when the movie was screened in early 1983. In three hour and three minutes of screenplay, Gandhi was bought back to life with a vividity and realism that was not only kaleidoscopic in conception, but more importantly, sensitive and well balanced. The meticulous research Attenborough had bought to the subject, gave a new interpretation and relevance to Gandhi’s life and work for modern generations. It was an artistically complete film. With this biopic, Like Cecil demille or David Niven, Richard had entered the pantheon of select few movie makers - whose style, finesse and narrative brilliance set new bench marks for historical dramas. Not surprisingly, it swept almost all the Academy awards that year, including the Best director for Richard Attenborough.
Einstein’s famous quote : “Generations to come, it may well be, will scarce believe that such a man as this one ever in flesh and blood walked upon this Earth…” was perhaps slightly mistaken, because he had not made allowances for Sir Richard Attenborough and his “Gandhi”. Now, generations to come will not only believe, but also get to see in celluloid flesh and blood the life story of a man who transformed the meaning of political struggle for mankind forever, giving it a spiritual twist that only a mind fermented in Indian tradition could have conceived. We shall be grateful to him for this magnificent tribute.
Rest blissfully sir... It has been a full life, well led…
God bless...
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