Gandhi Page #54

Gandhi stops, looks up at him, at the troops behind him.

BRITISH COLONEL:

I have instructions to inquire as to

the subject of your speech tonight.

Gandhi shakes his head with a weary grin.

GANDHI:

The value of goat's milk in daily

diet.

(Into his eyes)

But you can be sure I will also speak

against war.

The British Colonel signals back to the troops.

BRITISH COLONEL:

I'm sorry, sir. That can't be allowed.

As a detail marches up to them, the colonel's adjutant speaks

gently to Ba.

ADJUTANT:

It's all right, Mrs. Gandhi. I have

orders to return with you and your

companion to the Mahatma's ashram.

BA:

If you take my husband, I intend to

speak in his place.

She stares at the adjutant belligerently. He looks flummoxed.

Later. Long shot -- high. The colonel and his adjutant

striding toward the exit of the station. Following behind

them, a detail of six soldiers accompanying Gandhi. The camera

tracks across the platform and we see they are being followed

by a detail of six soldiers accompanying Ba. And the camera

tracks again and we see they are being followed by a detail

of six soldiers accompanying Mirabehn!

WINDING BUMPY ROAD - EXTERIOR - DAY

A jeep bounces along the road. It is driven by an American

lieutenant and his passenger is a woman dressed in an American

War Correspondent's uniform (Margaret Bourke-White). As the

jeep passes the camera we pan with it and see the walls of a

palace ahead.

BOURKE-WHITE

Stop! Wait a minute!

The jeep slithers to a stop, and Bourke-White grabs a camera

that is strapped around her, stands, and takes a picture of

the palace.

AGA KHAN'S PALACE - BOURKE-WHITE'S POINT OF VIEW - EXTERIOR -

DAY:

The palace looks evocative -- a lonely, incongruous building.

WINDING BUMPY ROAD - EXTERIOR - DAY

LIEUTENANT:

It was the Aga Khan's palace, but

they've turned it into a prison.

Bourke-White slips back down into her seat; we see the arm

band on her jacket: "Press." The lieutenant starts the jeep

up and they head toward the gate, where we see a British

soldier on guard.

LIEUTENANT:

(shouting over the

motor)

They've got most of the leading

Congress politicians in this one.

But Nehru and some others are over

in Dehra Dun. Your timing's pretty

lucky. They had your Mr. Gandhi cut

off from the press but last month

his personal secretary died and

they've let up on the restrictions.

Bourke-White just absorbs it, staring at the palace, taking

in the experience with the appetite of her breed, and her

own particular sensitivity.

GANDHI'S ROOM - AGA KHAN'S PALACE - INTERIOR - DAY

Gandhi sits by the window that is grilled rather than barred.

He is spinning in a shaft of light -- and looking off -- as

we hear a camera click and the rustle of movement. His hair,

only half-gray in London, is now white.

GANDHI:

Yes, I have heard of Life Magazine.

(A smile.)

I have even heard of Margaret Bourke-

White. But I don't know why either

should be interested in an old man

sitting in prison when the world is

blowing itself to pieces.

Bourke-White -- who has been moving, crouching to shoot him

and the light -- sags back against the wall, relaxing at

last. She has a smile as penetrating and warming as his.

BOURKE-WHITE

(a beat -- and she

smiles)

You're the only man I know who makes

his own clothes.

Gandhi grins and glances toward his dhoti.

GANDHI:

Ah, but for me that's not much of an

accomplishment.

Meaning he doesn't wear many clothes. Bourke-White bursts

into an appreciative radiance -- already she has assessed

him, and been won.

WALL AND YARD - AGA KHAN'S PALACE - EXTERIOR - DAY

Gandhi walks along, Bourke-White loping along beside him, a

little distance away, listening, but searching too for an

angle, a moment that is right.

GANDHI:

No -- prison is rather agreeable to

me, and there is no doubt that after

the war, independence will come. My

only worry is what shape it will

take. Jinnah has --

BOURKE-WHITE

Stop!

She has Gandhi in the foreground, a soldier on the wall above

and behind him.

BOURKE-WHITE

Now go on -- just as you were.

Gandhi shrugs but suffers it. We feature him, low, from her

point of view, as he walks on, the soldier pacing on the

wall in the background.

BOURKE-WHITE

(coaching)

"...what shape it will take." Jinnah

has -- what?

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