KATHMANDU: When did the father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi watch his first film? Which movie was it and how did the vegetarian and boycotter of foreign goods like it? The answer to these questions come from across the border in Nepal.

Veteran Gandhian from Nepal, Gopaldas Shrestha, was a teenager when he was taken to Gandhiji's Wardha ashram by Tulsi Meher Shrestha, a Nepali social worker known as the "Gandhi of Nepal" who forced to go into exile in India to escape imprisonment by Nepal's draconian Rana rulers.

"Mahatma Gandhi saw his first film in 1943 (when he was 74!) and that too with hundreds of followers," Shrestha, who spent nine months in Gandhiji's company, said in an exclusive reminiscence carried by the Naya Patrika daily.

A well-wisher obtained the equipment necessary to screen the film at his own residence where Mahatma Gandhi saw his first film: Mission to Moscow.

Directed by Michael Curtiz, the 1943 film was adapted from the book by the same name written by an American ambassador to erstwhile Soviet Union, Joseph E. Davies, chronicling his experiences in the Communist republic.

According to Shrestha, Gandhiji did not like the film, especially because of the ball dances and scantily-clad women in it.

The viewing of a western film by a man who had given a call to boycott all foreign goods created a controversy and soon afterwards, Mahatma Gandhi viewed a film closer to his liking.

It was Ram Rajya, an over two-hour bilingual film in Hindi and Marathi directed by Vijay Bhatt and based on the Hindu epic Ramayana by Valmiki, the Mahatma's favourite book.

Shrestha, who was gradually given the task of making Gandhiji's bed, described life in Wardha as one of the most disciplined and the Mahatma as a man with an iron resolution.

Once when sectarian riots broke out in India, the Mahatma began a sit-in praying for peace and would not leave the dais, even to sleep at night.

When it started raining he refused to budge and the frantic followers had to devise a plan to prevent his getting soaked to the skin.

"Two persons would stand on either end of the dais holding a tarpaulin over his head to keep him dry," Shrestha reminisced.

"When the cloth became soaked, another two would rush in with another tarpaulin."

Press Trust of India