Gandhi Page #27

He tries to make it severe, but it is a comedown.

GANDHI:

I am an Indian traveling in my own

country. I see no reason for trouble.

It is firm and there is an edge of assertiveness to it that

the Captain doesn't like, but Gandhi's unrelenting stare

unnerves him. He glances at Charlie again.

ENGLISH CAPTAIN:

Well, there'd better not be.

Again, the empty severity of weakness. He looks around, then

turns and marches off briskly shoving his way through the

crowd. "Out of my way, there! Come on, move!"

Gandhi smiles reflectively, and the crowd suddenly begins to

buzz. Where all was silence before there is now the hum of

excitement. Already he has scored a victory -- and as he

moves forward again, making the pranam, they return it with

flushed greetings. "Gandhi -- Gandhi -- Bapu -- Gandhiji"...

PEASANT'S DWELLING - INTERIOR - DAY

The early light of the sun illumines the dwelling. We feature

a man in middle age, but one who looks ill and drawn (Meha).

He lies on a straw mat.

MEHA:

For years the landlords have ordered

us to grow indigo, for dyeing the

cloth. Always they took part of the

crop as rent.

Gandhi sits cross-legged, listening. It is the kind of

listening that opens the heart. Behind him a mass of villagers

sits stoically, outside the dwelling, waiting while their

case is heard. Meha tries to speak unemotionally but under

Gandhi's sympathetic gaze his despair keeps cracking through.

MEHA:

But now the English factories make

cloth for everyone. No one wants our

indigo. And the landlords won't take

their share. They say we must pay

our rent in cash.

Near to breakdown, he gestures around the empty house.

MEHA:

What we could, we sold... The police

have taken the rest. There is no

food, we --

He cannot go on.

GANDHI:

I understand.

(He examines his hands

a moment.)

The landlords are British?

It's a rhetorical question. Meha nods.

Gandhi looks around the crude dwelling, almost nothing

remains. We see two young men, one seventeen perhaps, the

other older, and a girl, sixteen. And finally Meha's wife,

sitting near Ba, the two women listening together but Meha's

wife looks like a woman who has given up, her hair is dead

and hardly combed, her sari dirty.

Meha looks at Gandhi and shakes his head hopelessly. Gandhi

nods... He stands slowly.

GANDHI:

What we can do... we will try to do.

The words are said bleakly, not to raise false hopes. He

glances at Meha's wife. Water comes to her eyes, and she

lowers her head. Ba puts her hands on her shoulders and clasps

her to her, and the woman breaks, and sobs and sobs...

TILLED FIELD - CHAMPARAN - EXTERIOR - DAY

Gandhi rides on an open howdah on an elephant, his mind locked

in sober reflection. Shukla shares the howdah with him, but

does not dare break Gandhi's black mood.

GANDHI:

Is all Champaran like this, Shukla?

SHUKLA:

Yes, Bapu...

(He looks across the

field.)

The whole province... hundreds --

thousands.

It registers with Gandhi -- but inside. A moment.

CHARLIE'S VOICE

Mohan -- !

Gandhi shakes himself from his absorption and looks back. Ba

and Charlie are mounted on a similar howdah on another

elephant, both being led by peasant boys. Charlie is pointing

behind them. Coming along the path is a tall Indian policeman

on a bicycle. He rides right past Charlie and Ba and comes

alongside Gandhi. His attitude is superficially polite, but

he is full of righteous authority.

POLICEMAN:

(he knows)

Are you Mr. M. K. Gandhi?

GANDHI:

Yes.

POLICEMAN:

I'm sorry but you are under arrest.

GANDHI:

I am not sorry at all.

It contains more anger than we have seen him display to anyone

but Ba.

CHAMPARAN CRICKET CLUB - EXTERIOR - DAY

A ball is hit. The camera pulls back to reveal a lush, verdant

pitch, white-garbed players, English, a few ladies dressed

in First World War fashion watching under parasols near the

clubhouse and in the shade of trees with a few officers and

civil servants, while Indian servants discreetly serve cool

drinks.

The batsman has hit a four and we see him run down the pitch

with his partner until the four is certain, then

BATSMAN:

(to the wicket keeper)

Who did you say would be buying the

drinks?

The wicket keeper makes a rude, facetious gesture, but as

the batsman turns to settle in his crease again

BATSMAN:

Oh, no --

He has looked up. A car is pulling hurriedly in near the

clubhouse, an officer in it, and people are streaming toward

it.

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