Gandhi Page #49

In the dark a large group of students comes stumbling,

laughing, across the ditch that separates the road from the

field. The student leader gets clear of the ditch and comes

upon Pyarelal and Walker. They are standing near a group of

American newsmen playing poker by a campfire. He addresses

Pyarelal good-naturedly.

STUDENT LEADER:

We've come to join the march. What

do we do?

PYARELAL:

(bluntly)

Be sure you're awake in the morning.

(It comes from a

knowledge of students.

He smiles and nods

off.)

Find a place to sleep.

The student leader follows his gaze and the camera pans off

with his glance. We see that the numbers have grown immensely.

Fires dot the field and spread and spread and spread. Behind

Walker and Pyarelal the newsreel truck and three cars for

reporters are spread out around the fires. We identify a

couple of Frenchmen and a Japanese. Walker looks at Pyarelal

and shakes his head in wonder at it all.

TREE - EXTERIOR - DAWN

A small Indian boy is high in a dead tree. Below him a couple

of bone-thin cattle graze in the early light as he stares

off.

DUSTY ROAD - BOY'S POINT OF VIEW - EXTERIOR - DAWN

The huge procession stretched out along the road.

Resume the boy. He grins as though he is privy to some great

secret.

"Y" JUNCTION OF TWO COUNTRY ROADS - EXTERIOR - DAY

A blunt, rotund, powerful-looking woman (Sarojini Naidu) in

an outrageously colorful sari strides along the dusty road

as though she could cover another thousand miles -- and means

to. The sound of hundreds of marching feet, of cars, some

distant singing. The camera lifts and pulls back. We see

that Naidu is marching just behind Gandhi, like a determined

lieutenant, and that the procession has grown even greater.

Two newsreel trucks now, four cars of reporters, some people

riding donkeys, some walking with camels trailing, loaded

with belongings.

And at the "Y" junctions the newsreel crews suddenly go into

action because another enormous procession is waiting to

join the first, mingling already, making one immense column

of humanity.

And as they pass the camera up close we see an extraordinary

variety of participants: old, young, students, peasants,

ladies in saris and jewels, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Christian

nuns, Untouchables, merchants, some vigorous and determined,

others disheveled, tired and determined.

Suddenly the sound of waves and gentle wind.

THE BEACH AT DANDI - EXTERIOR - DAY

The camera closing fast (helicopter) as the silhouette of a

man appears running up a sand dune, lifting his arms to the

sky and the camera sweeps over him and up, revealing a

crescent of beach and ocean, and for a second it holds on

the sea as it did at Porbandar, then pivots to the truly

astronomical crowd thronging the shore, an immense wheel of

human beings, and in its hub a gathering around Gandhi. We

descend on that center, recognizing the newsmen, Walker,

Pyarelal, Sarojini Naidu, and at last Gandhi picking up a

handful of natural salt and lifting it high.

During the last of this

GANDHI'S VOICE-OVER

Man needs salt as he needs air and

water. This salt comes from the Indian

Ocean.

(The salt crystals

are added to an urn

already partially

full. The camera

pulls back and Gandhi

lifts the urn. All

around him the

pressing crowd:

newsreel cameramen,

reporters -- Walker,

Collins, Naidu,

Pyarelal. Firmly)

Let every Indian claim it as his

right!!

A wide-angle shot.

Gandhi in the center of the wildly cheering crowd, the camera

pulling back and back... and the shot becomes black and white,

and we hear the music of Movietone News.

ANNOUNCER'S VOICE-OVER

...and so once more the man of non-

violence has challenged the might of

the British Empire.

And with that we get the Movietone Music tag and as the film

fades, the lights go up on

LORD IRWIN'S OFFICE - INTERIOR - DAY

A couple of civil servants move about to raise the window

shades while Lord Irwin stares at the blank screen set up in

his office. The general, the brigadier, the senior police

officer, Irwin's ADC and the principal secretary are all

present. The two men who ran the projector are quietly

dismantling it.

Finally, Irwin turns to the senior police officer, who

fidgets, but answers the implied questions.

SENIOR POLICE OFFICER

They're making it everywhere, sir --

mobs of them -- publicly. Congress

leaders are selling it on the streets

of Delhi.

Irwin sighs.

BRIGADIER:

We're being made fools of around the

world!

GENERAL:

Isn't there any instruction from

London?

Irwin nods.

IRWIN:

We're required to stop it.

(He stands, his mind

made up.)

And stop it we will.

(He looks at the senior

police officer.)

I don't care if we fill the jails,

stop it. Arrest anyone, any rank --

except Gandhi. We'll cut his strength

from under him. And then we'll deal

with the Mahatma.

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