His followers refer to him as the modern day Mahatma. So it’s only inevitable that this connection with the Father of the Nation will lead to a YouTube video. Right now the Gandhi 2 video is one of the most popular searches on cyber space. While traditional supporters of the Mahatma are not too thrilled, most Gen Y viewers find it a hilarious watch.
This “Weird Al” Yankovic 1989 creation mocks the principles of non-violence and vegetarianism propagated by Gandhi. In the video he is depicted with a gun in a sports car and flaunts a girl on both arms giving Bond some competition. A video that has 1,587 likes and 91 dislikes from the 577,311 views in three years is becoming quite a must watch.
Lavlesh Bhoorani, business development executive of Walnut Communication thoroughly enjoyed the video and says, “I may be a Gandhian to an extent but like Al’s Gandhi even I go to a restaurant and enjoy the steak medium rare.” This being the part in the video that Lavlesh enjoyed the most.
A comment from Forkhead on the video says, “Some people just don’t get the difference between INSULT HUMOR and PARODY HUMOR. This is a PARODY – and ?PARODIES are TRIBUTES. Goodness sakes.” WillisTron’s rebuttal to this compares this parody to one on Arnold Schwarzenegger playing the role of a ballerina. “It’s funny because it’s the polar opposite, as in this video” he says.
In a similar light-hearted fashion Aditya Patel, an animator and VFX artist, found the video ridiculously hilarious and says, “It reminds me of Machete or Hobo with a Shotgun.” But he would not recommend it to a patriot or a Gandhian as it is a touchy subject for the kind.
“The part I enjoyed the most is simple to identify with. ‘He likes ta partaye!’ threw me off my chair,” adds Aditya.
Martin D’souza, a freelance writer and consultant, would not recommend this video to a Gandhian either but considers it a well made video from the creative perspective. He finds the content extremely thought-provoking and controversial.
“With all due respect to the kind of impact made by Gandhi, a pun on this might hurt sentiments,” says Martin while he commends the acting of Gandhi 2.