Alladi presents new take on the life of Gandhi

Ram Alladi, Director of the award winning film ‘Chiseled’, is set to release his ambitious and mesmerising ‘’Ra’s Metanoia’’; a re-imaging of the life of the legendary Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Shot entirely in New York and New Jersey, ‘Ra’s Metanoia’ combines vintage film styling with state of the art computer generated sets to create this spellbinding non-linear telling of Gandhi’s life based on Gandhi’s writings – most significantly, his memoir, ‘Magic Spell Of A Book’.

A periodic drama with historically accurate fictional elements, ‘Ra’s Metanoia’ takes the audience through the key moments in Gandhi’s life; from childhood to his untimely death in 1948 in New Delhi. Although Ram Alladi has taken care to avoid religious and cultural references, the more spiritual elements of the father of the nation’s life and philosophies are beautifully illustrated with clever symbolism and a sublime script.

The Story

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was a lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist and political ethicist who changed the world as we know it through non-violent resistance and successful civil rights campaigning, including freeing India from British rule. ‘Ra’s Metanoia’ chronicles Gandhi’s extraordinary life with a combination of fact and fiction whilst encapsulating scientific concepts such as quantum mechanics, Einstein Rosenberg bridge and rare space elements. The film seamlessly weaves a tapestry of a richly narrated story with Gandhi principles. Ram Alladi achieves this with his usual flair by tapping into stunning imagery and symbolism.

Visualization

Based on the director’s childhood fascination with Gandhi, ‘Ra’s Metanoia’ has been derived largely through the words of Gandhi himself and, Gandhism is the central theme of the film, despite its occasional fictional elements. Ram Alladi originally intended to craft a screenplay from Gandhi’s memoir, ‘Magic Spell Of A Book’ but, it soon became clear that this multifaceted tale deserved something a little different. Having grown up paying tribute to Gandhi on national holidays, ‘Gandhi amar rahe’ (long live Gandhi) was such a central theme in Ram’s life that he spent much of his childhood believing that his hero was still alive. Ram remembers visiting the Gandhi Museum in New Delhi and wondering how he could remove the blood stains from Gandhi’s showcased shawl.

The music

Music was very much a love of Gandhi’s life and Ram Alladi has been fastidious in ensuring that ‘Ra’s Metanoia’’s soundtrack reflects that. Most notably, the re-composed and re-imagined soundtrack features one of Gandhi’s favourite songs, ‘Ekla Chalo’ which was written by the Nobel prize winner Rabindranath Tagore.

All of the music in ‘Ra’s Metanoia’ is performed with authentic, acoustic Indian instruments in order to recreate the sounds that Gandhi loved so much. The film’s background score composer is the celebrated Bharadwaj V Komaragiri who composed ‘Ra’s Metanoia’’s sound effect design including the distinctive ticking sound of Gandhi’s Ingersoll watch.

Cast & Crew
Srinivas Rao Sanapathi, Rajesh Rajagopal, Tej Kondeti and Deepak Bhimarasetty played Mohanddas Karamchand Gandhi role, Patrick Lloyd, Lorenzo Paladino, Mamadau Cisse, Saritha Navali, Kamya Rayasam played Kasturba Gandhi, Abhiram Naluvala, Rajaprasad, Rajiv Visupte, Satish.P, S.S.V.Prasad, Dasharathi Gattu, Varsha Rayasam, Shriya Singh, Shiva Kondeti, Dr. Khushboo Singh (Putlibai), Lakshmi Rao, Adhya Alladi, Sanjana Kondeti
Edited By Rakesh Challa, Director of Lighting by Sathish Rontala, Music By Bharadwaj V Komaragiri, Costumes by Poornima Alladi, VFX by Rudra Alladi, Adam Crawford, Krishna Guntupally, Subhash Pachisia (Voice over for Bapu), Madhu Guntupally (Voice over artist)