Movie profile: Darshan Jariwala

Essaying Bapu

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. The man who changed the history of India and the way the world viewed non-violence forever. The various aspects of Gandhi's life have made their way into cinema, the most successful being Gandhi by Richard Attenborough in 1982. Now, Darshan Jariwala essays 'Bapu' in Anil Kapoor's Gandhi My Father, which was released recently.

Darshan Jariwala is well known in Gujarati Theatre and is no stranger to Bollywood. He has played villain in Aap Kaa Surroor, which is Himesh Reshammiya's acting debut, and has done small roles in films like Style, Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd, and Guru. The actor is confident that the audience will accept him as Bapu.

Acting runs in Darshan Jariwala's blood. His mother, Leela was a famous actor and was one among the team that formed the Gujarati theatre group, Rangbhoomi. He recalls some of his favorite Gujarati plays including ‘Hathedi Par Baat Baaki’, ‘Patro Mitro’, ‘Mulraj Mansion’ and ‘Andhalo Pato’ and his Hindi play, ‘Uncle Samjha Karo’. He ventured into English Theatre in 2000 with Vikram Kapadia's ‘Going Solo 2’ in which he played the much acclaimed Yusuf Lakdawala. He followed that up with several English plays including ‘Musk Maiden’, ‘It Happens Only in India’, ‘30 DaysiIn September’, and ‘Too Hot to Handle’.

The plum role of Gandhi fell into his lap via director and theater personality Feroz Abbas Khan, who had approached Darshan to play Gandhi in his play, ‘Mahatma vs. Gandhi’. However, Darshan could not do the role for various reasons. Luckily however, he was approached by Feroz to do Gandhi in his debut film, Gandhi My Father, which explores Gandhi as a father and his strained relationship with his son, Harilal. When the film was recently premiered in Johannesburg, South Africa, the response was stupendous. Audience could not contain their emotions. Former President Nelson Mandela, himself an icon for the contemporary peace movement and the current President Thabo Mbeki, praised the film.

Darshan considers it extremely fortunate to have worked with Feroz Abbas Khan with whom he shares a deep friendship too. The debutant director brought out the best in him, he says. Feroz also ensured that Darshan's strengths were utilized well and it was his constant encouragement that helped Darshan give his best to the role. The film also had an actor from the Bollywood mainstream - Akshaye Khanna, who plays Gandhi's son Harilal. Darshan says that working with Akshaye was wonderful since they shared a great rapport. If the press was expecting stories of Akshaye's starry attitude, they were sorely disappointed. Shefali Shan, who plays Kasturba Gandhi, was the best costar he could have asked for.

Darshan says he would be willing to work with her any time since he admires her as an actress and person.

Does Darshan believe that this movie is going to be a turning point as far as his Bollywood career is concerned? He Rajkumar Santoshi's Halla Bol, Ketan Mehta's Colours Of Passion, Yash Raj's Aaja Nachle and Rohit Jugraj's untitled film under his belt now. However, he has never been in a hurry. He made his Bollywood debut in Paagalpan in 2001. Rather than doing the 'formula' roles that were offered to him, he preferred to wait for meaningful and versatile roles - like that of Gandhi's. Now that Hindi films are offering more varied roles to artists, he believes that he will be able to carve a niche for himself in Bollywood.