There are some movies that manage to excite you on the power of their title itself. 'Maine Gandhi Ko Nahi Maara' is one of them. A movie that got into limelight just about 4 weeks back did well in arousing your curiosity around itself. But does it manage to meet the expectations?

Sadly no!

It attempts at coming near to it but looses its direction midway. Prime reason being that the movie tries touching upon too many issues - protagonist's guilt of having killed Gandhiji, an old man's position within his own family, fast fading Gandhi ideologies and the Alzheimer disease.

If the makers believed that this would manage to shake audience's soul and force them to think hard about today's times, then that doesn't really happen. Hence the film doesn't come up trumps from both the messaging perspective and the entertainment quotient! Thankfully the film doesn't loose out completely due to good performances but more about that later.

Film is set in a Mumbai middle class family headed by Professor Uttam Chaudhary [Anupam Kher] who has a working daughter Trisha [Urmila Matondkar] and a college going son [Addy] living with him while his eldest son [Rajit Kapur] is in Merchant Navy. A retied man, he is fast turning forgetful to such an extent that the instances from the present vanish away in moments while the memories of his past strike back with strengthened venom on a continuous basis.

His worsening condition results in Trisha's boyfriend [Vishwaas Paandya] of 4 years calling off the relation. But Trisha still believes that her father would get well one day soon and seeks the help of the best of the psychiatrists in the town. All this while Professor continues to sink further and his issue aggravates to such an extent that he starts having problems because of a memory from his childhood.

Now he starts believing that he accidentally killed Gandhiji.

As a result of this, Professor doesn't find peace anywhere. Such is the extent of his trauma that even his house starts seeming to him as a jail while his family appears to him as his captors. Trisha goes all out to get her father out of this whirlpool of thoughts, memories and mental imbalance. She approaches famous psychiatrist Sidharth Kothari [Praveen Dabas] and his senior [Prem Chopra] who try to go deep into this extraordinary case, find a real problem of this guilt and come up with a solution that may just about manage to cure her father.

They arrange for a fake courtroom drama where Professor is made to stand as an accused. How this manages to bring the guilt out from the Professor forms the rest of the story.

The movie goes along fine as far as setting of the basic plot is concerned. In the initial reels the father-daughter relationship and the failing condition of the Professor is established. Towards the interval point when Professor reveals his guilt about Gandhiji's assassination, it sounds a bit absurd but you still try absorbing it as you are curious to know about the reason behind this guilt. But from thereon it goes all downhill with the proceedings becoming exceedingly grim. Even the disclosure of the guilt from his childhood doesn't make much of an impact while the very idea of a fake courtroom setting is childish to say the least.

From this point on things becomes so theatrical that you wonder of this portion of the film is directed by the same man Jahnu Barua who did a fairly good job in the first half. The entire courtroom sequence featuring Boman Irani and Anupam Kher ironically becomes comical and hence manages to vanish away whatever built up done by then. Climax take the cake when just after being "acquitted" by the court, Anupam Kher delivers a rather out-of-place and unwanted speech about Gandhiji. Frankly, if the message really had to be conveyed then this was not the point in the movie to do so.

Two factors that work for the movie are performances and background music. For a movie like this it is imperative that performances are top class and on this ground both Anupam Kher and Urmila Matondkar are joint winners. Anupam Kher as expected comes up with a bravura performance in an author-backed role. Though people may draw parallels with his 'Saaransh', one may remember that he did quite a convincing portrayal of a man fast loosing mental balance in lesser known 'Salakhen' directed by Guddu Dhanoa. 

Urmila can have her head high to have matched the actor at every instance. In fact she is a complete natural and never one do you see her getting too 'filmy' or unnecessarily 'arty'. Debutant Addy comes up next when it comes to competent performances and doesn't go overboard as an immature teenage son. Parvin Dabas and Vishwaas Pandya do well for their parts while Waheeda Rehman [as the manager of the NGO where Urmila works] is graceful. Rajit Kapur and Prem Chopra are wasted while Raju Kher is okay in his solitary scene. After No Entry, MGKNM is the second movie that finds Boman Irani out of elements.

Bappi Lahiri's background music is touching and confirms the views that it is one of his best ever. It suits the moods and the proceedings of the movie exceedingly well. Raaj A. Chakravarti's is good while dialogues are just about fine. Direction by Jahnu Barua gives a good impression about a sincere attempt but an erratic screenplay dissolves some of the good work.

As said earlier, MGKNM tries to tackle too many issues that results in a not-too-impressive final outcome. A grim subject coupled with an unconvincing story would result in the movie being appreciated only by select elite.