Nine Hours to Rama

Nine Hours To Rama is the story of the Mahatma Gandhi's assassination in 1948. When I saw the film Gandhi with Ben Kingsley, I looked on the IMDb message board and someone asked if Gandhi was a fictional character. So in case you're not aware, he was the founder of the independence movement that led to the creation of India and Pakistan. He believed in nonviolent resistance, which got rid of the British, but the Muslims broke away and created Pakistan. War and conflict followed.

A Hindu, Nathuram Gotse, blamed Gandhi for conceding too much to the Muslim separatist leader, Mohammed Ali Jinnah. He wasn't alone.

The strongest performance in the film is that of J.S. Casshyap, who plays Gandhi - I actually felt like I was watching the great man himself. He did a fantastic job. Horst Buchholz, an incredibly handsome man who enjoyed a good career in America for a time, plays Gotse very well. As the police inspector, Jose Ferrer handled his role beautifully - he knows Gandhi is in danger, but Gandhi won't let him take any precautions or change his schedule.

This film was released less than a year after the Kennedy assassination. The film states it is a work of fiction, as it focuses on Gotse and his various involvements.

I watched this film completely at random from my library of "old VHS" I thought it to be a very good production, but probably of marginal interest to today's public.

After I realized what the movie really portrayed, I was fascinated to pursue some of the other comments, a piece of history that has been "missed." Really some of this is very relevant to what is happening today. I very much appreciate the sentiments pro or con in the above reviews.

Good movie overall, I'll not comment on the production, but would make the following observations: Bucholz - great performance, but where did he go from here? (I did see the obit); Ferrer - very impressed with his handling of his role; Morley - miscast and not in character

Lastly. this was an AngloHollywood production of an IndoPakistani historic event. A Bollywood reproduction might prove interesting!

Despite periodic attempts by his family to rehabilitate him, Natu Ram Ghodse remains **unperson** in India. It is illegal to publish his name or likeness, with the intention of wiping out all memory of the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi.

The astonishing portrayal of the magnicide Ghodse by young Horst Buchholz shows that it is possible on an emotional level to empathize with an unsympathetic character.

The casting probably is the best thing about this picture--that and the exceptional local color of the cinematography. Buchholtz was German born and bred, yet there always was something, well...Asiatic about his looks. Darken his complexion a bit and he makes a convincing Hindu. The most inspired casting of all however was J. S. Casshyap as Gandhi. Casshyap was a university professor, Indian but entirely at home in English, and this was his first film role. His last, too so far as is known. Seeing him bent over a simple spinning wheel really is like seeing the Great Soul himself on the last day of his life.

Many commenters have remarked the effective opening titles but none seem to get the significance of showing the steady unwinding of a watch's mainspring, with driving, rhythmic Indian music in the background. Time...time is passing...time is running out--for Mohandas Gandhi, for India, for the world.

A film which builds up to a climax is spoilt by some unconvincing performances, especially Harry Andrews' Indian Officer and Robert Morley. Despite this, the direction is reasonable and the film worth seeing as there seem so few films about this subject.

NINE HOURS TO RAMA distinguishes itself in the category of "historical fiction." While remaining faithful to Stanley Wolpert's novel, it perfectly captures the political tension of post-independence India which led to the murder of Mahatma Gandhi on 30 January 1948.

Nelson Gidding's screenplay eliminates some of the clutter of the novel, limits the flashbacks to the background of the assassin, Nathuram Godse, and maintains a good pace through the painful climax. Director Mark Robson (THE HARDER THEY FALL, VON RYAN'S EXPRESS), with the help of cinematographer Arthur Ibbetson, makes good use of the diverse landscape and people of India. Robson's international leads portray Indians with intelligence and sensitivity, blending expertly with many Indian supporting actors.

In making the transition from an exuberant 18-year old to an embittered fanatic of 30-plus, Horst Buchholz delivers an intense, focused performance as Godse, the real-life killer. Don Borisenko is his partner Apte, plagued by doubt and fear, and straining to reconcile his fateful mission with the tenets of his Hindu faith. The biggest liberty taken with history is the addition of a sophisticated, married woman with whom Godse falls in love, played by the lovely, elegant Valerie Gearon.

Jose Ferrer is superb as the Delhi police inspector desperately trying to prevent the inevitable, but hamstrung by the target himself. His frustration is shared by Harry Andrews, unrecognizable as a Sikh general. Robert Morley is fabulous as the parliamentarian whose hard-headed politics clashes with Gandhi's idealism. The gorgeous Diane Baker plays a prostitute who provides Godse with some much-needed refuge.

By far, the most inspired piece of casting is that of a former teacher, J. S. Casshyap, as Mahatma Gandhi. (Yes, HE is Indian!) His scenes, however brief, are the most startling. His resemblance to the great leader -- face, body, and voice -- is nothing short of remarkable, even more so than Ben Kingsley in the second half of GANDHI. It is one of the many injustices of the film world, that Casshyap was never even nominated for an Oscar for "Best Supporting Actor."

Robson and his crew deserve high praise for their fidelity to the subject matter and the professionalism of its execution, from Saul Bass's chilling opening credits (showing the inner workings of a stopwatch) and Malcolm Arnold's magnificent score, through the costume and production design, all the way to the brilliantly staged and edited assassination sequence. The result is one of the most underrated films of the 1960's.

I am furious that this is not available on VHS or DVD; in fact it should be in the widescreen format! One can only hope that 20th Century Fox will someday rectify the situation.