Gandhi

Depictions of Mahatma Gandhi have mostly been on film, notably Richard Attenborough’s Oscar-winning 1982 biopic. But when watching Peter Morgan’s The Crown, creators Hansal Mehta and Sameer Nair saw the potential in adapting the civil rights leader’s story into an epic small-screen series.

In season one, we meet Mohandas Gandhi (Pratik Gandhi, no relation) before he was Mahatma as a young man in India. He is already married and expecting a first child with his love Kasturba (Bhamini Oza Gandhi, married in real life to her fellow lead). Gandhi dreams of pursuing his passion for law in distant London. After some gentle persuasion by Kasturba, the wider family agrees to support Gandhi and send him on his way, expecting his law bona fides to pave the way for a life in local politics. Yet as Gandhi experiences life in London, meeting a like-minded fellow vegetarian, Josiah Oldfield (Tom Felton, the Harry Potter franchise), and growing into a deeper understanding of his own ethics, the young barrister begins to see a greater struggle ahead for him… and for India.

Based on the books Gandhi Before India and Gandhi: The Years That Changed the World by Ramachandra Guha, this series brings to life the full humanity of the man who would become a global symbol of resilience. Featuring a stirring score from Oscar-winning composer A.R. Rahman (Slumdog Millionaire), an impressive international cast, and detailed renderings of late 19th–century India, London, and South Africa, Gandhi spotlights a young man whose self-discovery and curiosity about the world would lead him to forever change it.

GEOFF MACNAUGHTON