History Film / Gandhi

* NiceToTheWaiter: He insists on relieving a servant of the tea set during a meeting with other independence leaders.

* {{Brownface}}: Creator/BenKingsley, despite being half-Indian with parentage from the same region and ethnicity as Gandhi, is fair-skinned in real-life; he darkened it for the role.

->''Whenever I despair, I remember that the way of truth and love has always won. There may be tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they may seem invincible, but in the end, they always fail. Think of it: always. ''

* EvilBrit: Gandhi has to face a lot of them, including probably the meanest of them all in India then: Reginald Dyer, who orders the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.

* BunnyEarsLawyer: Both the British authorities and many of Gandhi's fellow Indian nationalists initially see him as something of a harmless, ineffectual buffoon for living and dressing like a peasant, his whimsical concerns, and his seemingly unrealistic idealistic commitment to non-violence. Once his tactics prove effective in mobilizing the Indian masses towards independence, both his allies and enemies start taking him seriously.

* NotBad: Jinnah has nothing but contempt for Gandhi's monastic life and humility, but it's clear that Gandhi still wins Jinnah's grudging respect on several occasions, such as after the speech where Gandhi underscores out how pointless talk of India's independence is until the hearts and minds of the common people have been won by addressing their day to day concerns, and when Gandhi's "non-cooperation" campaign and later salt strike win major concessions from British authorities.

* BunnyEarsLawyer: Both the British authorities and many of Gandhi's fellow Indian nationalists see him as something of a buffoon for living and dressing like a peasant, his whimsical concerns, and his seemingly unrealistic idealistic commitment to non-violence. Once his tactics prove effective in mobilizing the Indian masses towards independence, both his allies and enemies start taking him seriously.

* TheMeanBrit: Gandhi has to face a lot of them, including probably the meanest of them all in India then: Reginald Dyer, who orders the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.

* DramaticallyMissingThePoint: It's a masterpiece of cognitive dissonance to see the Hindu militants hitting the opposition over the head with signs reading "Long Live Gandhi".

* DramaticallyMissingThePoint: It's a masterpiece of cognitive dissonance to see the Hindi militants hitting the opposition over the head with signs reading "Long Live Gandhi".

* SeriousBusiness: Salt to many Indians. Hence the Salt Marches.

* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: Gandhi is a portrayed as a saintly man, with little references to his extreme racism against blacks nor his sexist behavior.

* MachiavelliWasWrong: Reginald Dyer believes he can quash the independence movement by shooting Indians into submission. Instead, he creates more enmity between Indians at the colonial government.

* EarlyBirdCameo: Gandhi's assassin can be seen in the crowd that Nehru runs into to confront the heckeler who shouted "Death to Gandhi!"

** Jinna is not a particularly sympathetic character - he oozes snobbish contempt towards Gandhi and to a lesser extent other leading figures of the Indian Congress. However, Jinha is absolutely correct to point out that the masses of India are not all tolerant, Gandhi-like aspiring saints, therefore, the only alternative to sectarian civil war is to partition India into Hindu India proper and Muslim Pakistan.

** The British officials area not pleasant people and some display open bigotry. Nonetheless, they claim that British rule is what's keeping Hindu-Muslim violence from erupting in India. [[ForegoneConclusion Which, naturally, is what happens when India secures its independence.]] Gandhi had anticipated this and expected India could work out its own problems, but is dismayed when the solutions turns out to be the Partition of India.

* JerkassHasAPoint: Jinha is not a particularly sympathetic character - he oozes snobbish contempt towards Gandhi and to a lesser extent other leading figures of the Indian Congress. However, Jinha is absolutely correct to point out that the masses of India are no all tolerant, Gandhi-like aspiring saints, therefore, the only alternative to sectarian civil war is to partition India into Hindu India proper and Muslim Pakistan.

* JerkassHasAPoint: Jinha is not a particularly sympathetic character - he oozes snobbish contempt towards Gandhi and to a lesser extent other leading figures of the Indian Congress. However, Jinha is absolutely correct to point out that the masses of India are no all tolerant, Gandhi-like aspiring saints, so that therefore the only alternative to sectarian civil war is to partition India into Hindu India proper and Muslim Pakistan.

* GeneralRipper: General Reginald Dyer, but Gandhi makes it clear that the only difference between him and the mainstream British colonial treatment of India is in the degree of blatant violence used.