The film is set during World War II and centres upon the letters written by Gandhi to Adolf Hitler, and around the relationship of Hitler with his long-term lover Eva Braun, whom he married in his final days in the Berlin bunker in which they died. The film depicts the difference between the ideologies of Gandhi and Hitler and claims the superiority of Gandhism over Nazism.
Anupam Kher had originally agreed to play the role of Hitler, but he backed out after Jewish organisations in India condemned him for playing the part because of Hitler's massacre of millions of Jews.[5][6] The filmmakers accused Kher of not returning the ₹4 lakh (400,000 rupees) he had been paid after signing the contract and consequently sued him for ₹2.5 crore (25 million rupees).[7] However, Kher perceived it as a way of filmmakers to promote their film before the release.[8] It is the only mainstream Bollywood film to refer to the Indian Legion, a Waffen-SS unit recruited from Indian volunteers.
Criticism and controversies
Domestic Poster
British newspaper, The Guardian, declared the film to be profoundly misguided and to show a shocking ignorance of history. Noah Massil, president of the Central Organization of Indian Jews in Israel (COIJI) stated that "he would write to PresidentPratibha Patil and Prime MinisterManmohan Singh to intervene in order to prevent bringing disrepute to our entertainment industry", but the filmmakers claimed that the film does not glorify Hitler, but rather juxtaposes him against Gandhi's ideology of peace.[9][10]
We clarified that the movie is not about Hitler's ideology, but how his ideology of violence conflicts with Gandhi's ideology of peace. There is no glorification of Hitler's character.
The film was met with negative reviews. The Times of India gave the film 2 stars out of 5, calling it an "unnecessary play with history".[11] The Daily News and Analysis gave the movie one star.[12]NDTV criticised the movie for using Indian actors to play all non-Indian characters, using India itself as a stand-in to Europe, and for its "strands".[13] Koimoi gave the film 0.5/5; although it praised Yadav's performance as Hitler, it criticised the film's script, direction, technical values, soundtrack, and the performance from other actors.[14]
