Gandhi and Gandhi: Modernity, Gender and Reform in the Films of Rajesh Khanna

Meghnad Desai fittingly described the twentieth-century India as ‘a tale of two Gandhi dynasties’ – Mahatma Gandhi and Indira Gandhi. The confluence of two Gandhi(s) – former, ideologically and latter, socio-historically – provides an opportunity to read Rajesh Khanna’s star text with an altogether distinct theoretical approach. In this article, the author attempts to read Rajesh Khanna (1942–2012), the popular and veteran Indian actor, against the politico-historical backdrop of Indira Gandhi’s leftward leanings and to reveal the possibility of the Gandhian (former) paradigm for reform and national reconciliation within the iconography and the form of his films. More specifically, the article examines Mahatma Gandhi’s framework of an alternate modernity and masculinity embedded within Rajesh Khanna’s on-screen persona. Khadi, one of the major tropes for Mahatma to critique the western models of modernity, masculinity and progress, finds a focused attention vis-à-vis the iconography of Rajesh Khanna’s star text. Rajesh Khanna’s foray into electoral politics in early 1990s, echoing the Gandhian connotations of his stardom, will also be the subject of a brief discussion in this article.