He watched only two films, one of which was Hollywood's Mission To Moscow.
In 1939, filmmaker Vijay Bhatt felt honoured when Mahatma Gandhi asked him to make a film on the life and times of poet-saint from Gujarat, Narsi Mehta. Bhatt made the motion picture, Narsi Bhagat. It was released in 1940, and like many of his other ventures, was made in Gujarati.
However, Gandhi was so preoccupied then, he couldn't find time to see the film. Later in 1943, Vijay Bhatt made another mythological movie, Ram Rajya. This is the only Indian film that Gandhi saw at a special screening in 1944.
Just a few days before, the Mahatma had seen the pro-Soviet Hollywood film, 'Mission To Moscow', made in response to a request by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt. These are the two films the Mahatma ever saw.
He was 74 and in frail health those days, and on a maun-vrat (a vow of silence) too. Reluctantly did the doctors let him go and watch the picture, but only for, maybe, half an hour. The great man spent the advised half hour watching it, got engrossed, and sat through one more hour. We don't know what Gandhi thought of Shobhana Samarth, the Maharani enjoying Chitralekha offering that Bhimpalasi beauty in the vocals of Saraswati Rane: Beena madhur-madhur kachhu bol. Given his religious propensity, perhaps he may have preferred the one rendered by Lav and Kush in the voices of Vishnupant Pagnis and
Madhusudan Apte: Bharat ki ik sannaari ki hum katha sunaate hain. What we do know is, the great man patted Vijay Bhatt's back as he was being escorted out.
Earlier, Vijay Bhatt had set up the famous Prakash Pictures studio with his older brother Shankar. Vijay would generally handle the art angle, while Shankar would manage commercial end of things.
These brothers ignited pride in the feelings of many Indians, and understandably more pride in Gujaratis.
The brothers Vijay and Shankar Bhatt, fascinated with cinema, came to Bombay from Bhavnagar in the early 1920s and started writing stories in the days of the silent cinema, including for Ardeshir Irani, who later got famous for bringing to the screen first talking film, Alam Ara.
They wrote for Alif Laila (1933) and penned many stories and lyrics after that.
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