Gandhi Page #21

And, farther along, the parasols of one or two of the English

First Class passengers, a woman dousing her neck delicately

with perfume. A British officer, tunic unbuttoned, smoking a

long cigar as he walks along in a few inches of water, his

trousers rolled up, his shoes off.

Across the river down from the Third Class coaches a small

group of Indian women is squatted by the river's edge, washing

clothes. Some carry infants on their backs. Some small

children stand near them. Their ritual of washing goes on,

but they are all watching the passengers of the train.

Gandhi stands with Ba and Charlie among the Third Class

passengers. Ba cools her face with water. Charlie, his

trousers rolled up, plays a tentative splashing game with a

skinny little Indian boy. Gandhi is holding a large white

head cloth which he is soaking in the water, but his eyes

have been arrested by the sight of the women across the river.

And now we see the women closely from his point of view, the

camera panning slowly along them. Their bodies are skin and

bone. The clothes they wear, which looked normal from the

distance, are rags -- literally, shredded rages, one hung on

another. The children are hollow-eyed and gaunt, staring

listlessly at the train. One boy, with a stump for an arm,

aimlessly pushes at the flies that buzz around him.

Gandhi stands erect, lost now in the revelation of their

poverty. His eyes hold on one woman at the river bank. Though

her frail face is almost skeletal, it is beautiful but scarred

by a severe rash down her cheek and neck. The cloth she is

washing is a shredded piece of muslin. Her eyes have met

Gandhi's as he watches her.

Gandhi stares for a moment, a long beat. Then he slowly moves

his arm out into the water and, without taking his eyes from

her, releases the head cloth he has been rinsing. It floats

along on the water down toward the woman.

She looks from Gandhi to it with sudden excitement, a sense

of incredulity. As the cloth nears her, she rises and moves

almost greedily out into the water to take it. Her hands

snatch at it quickly. Then she stands, looking at Gandhi.

The infant on her back shifts, its huge hollow eyes reacting

to the movement.

Gandhi smiles slowly, tilting his head just slightly to her.

And now that she has possession of the cloth, her manner

calms again. And she looks back at him, and her lips almost

part with a tiny smile of thanks.

Hold Gandhi, staring at her, fighting the pain in his eyes...

TRAIN - EXTERIOR - NIGHT

Threading like a lighted necklace across the darkness of a

vast plain.

TRAIN IN HILLS - EXTERIOR - DAY

Climbing green hills -- a totally different terrain -- and

again we intercut, this time the train climbing: a boy and

buffalo running a huge, crude grinding wheel, train climbing;

farmers in terraced fields, train climbing faster and

faster... until suddenly with a hoot of the whistle and the

screech of brakes it stops!

TRAIN - EXTERIOR - DAY

Gandhi is leaning out of a window in a Third Class coach.

Ahead of him other passengers are looking too; some have

jumped down.

Gandhi and Charlie jump down too. As they come clear they

can see that a military train of an engine and two cars has

been derailed ahead of them. A small troop of cavalry are

coming slowly along the line of Gandhi's train toward them.

Featuring the cavalry. They are British and their troop leader

is viciously angry.

TROOP LEADER:

Clear the way! Get out of the way!

He is swinging his sword, not lethally, but threateningly at

the Indian passengers from the train. His British NCOs are

equally angry and deliberately ride close to the passengers,

forcing them back against the train.

Gandhi and Charlie step back. And as the troop goes past we

see from their point of view a group of Indian bearers,

trotting in the middle of the horsemen, carrying two litters --

covered, each hanging by straps from a long pole -- and each

bearing a badly wounded British soldier; one appears to be

dead.

OUTSKIRTS OF VILLAGE - EXTERIOR - DAY

The shadow of a train moves slowly along the ground, a sense

of tension and foreboding. We hear the engine chugging slowly.

The camera lifts. Gandhi and Charlie stand at a window,

staring out grimly. Other passengers are looking off too. Ba

is seated, staring straight ahead, her face taut, deliberately

not seeing what the others are seeing.

GALLOWS - EXTERIOR - DAY

Their point of view: On a hill across from the railroad track

part of a prison wall is visible. In front of it a thick

pole is straddled across two others. From this crude gallows

two Indian men hang by the neck. One is in turban and dhoti,

the other in a tunic. The sound of the train stopping.

VILLAGE - EXTERIOR - DAY

Close shot. Incense rising in shot. The camera pulls back

and back. The incense is burning in a bowl sitting before

Gandhi on a make-shift platform set in the little valley

between the train line and the little hill where the Indian

men have been hanged. A small crowd sits in a crescent before

him, Ba and Charlie are bent in prayer on the platform behind

him. When the camera comes to rest, the edge of the gallows

and a portion of one of the hanged men is in the frame. We

know we are looking from someone's point of view near the

prison wall.

Finally, Gandhi lifts his head.

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