Gandhi in reel life - lost and found

The Hindu : Metro Plus Madurai : Gandhi in reel life - lost and found: " The Temple City has many objets d'art and one more is added to the list with its possession of a film, `Mahatma Gandhi - A Twentieth Century Prophet,' a rare one on the Father of the Nation. A copy of the film, that was assumed to be lost, has been found at the Gandhi Museum.

The documentary was made in English in 1953 in Hollywood by A. Karuppan Chettiar, a Tamil writer and journalist, popularly known as A.K. Chettiar. It runs for 55 minutes and has some unique scenes such as Gopalakrishna Gokhale's visit to South Africa in 1912; his meeting with Gandhi; Jawaharlal Nehru spinning a `chakra' (wheel); the Mahatma bathing in the sea at the end of Dandi March; Round Table Conference in London and Quit India Movement.

Another highlight is a mass spinning sequence shot by Chettiar at Tirupur, featuring 2,000 women spinning the `charka' with Carnatic singer D.K. Pattammal singing Namakkal Ramalingam Pillai's `Aadu Raatee' in the background. "