Matters India reporter

Mumbai: The Mumbai-based GandhiServe India Trust has produced a comprehensive audio-visual show presenting the life of Mahatma Gandhi.

More than 500 colorized images of Gandhi and India’s independence movement are used in the high-caliber presentation that was released early August.

The 60-minute show is titled “My Life Is My Message – The life and work of Mahatma Gandhi” and can be viewed as video-on-demand from August 15.

This audio-visual show introduces the life and work of Gandhi through rare images and archival material. The producers collected photographs and other documents about Mahatma Gandhi and India’s independence movement from sources all over the world in a concentrated effort that lasted more than 30 years.

Initiated by GandhiServe India Trust, in an interdisciplinary project, Gandhi scholars, historians, photo experts and graphic designers joined hands to turn black and white photographs into color images, thus making them true documents of history.

After scanning, all photographs have been cleaned digitally and colorized by skilled Indian hands according to the historic settings. When the photographs were taken the actual colorful scenes were reduced to black and white photographs due to technical limitations of those days. Now, in a complex process, Indian experts added the missing colors.

Mahatma Gandhi’s life story is narrated by Pratap Sharma and Neethi Ravindran, leading voices in Indian TV, cinema and theater.

The show has been conceived and directed by Peter Rühe, founder-chairperson of the Germany-based GandhiServe Foundation.

The audio-visual show can be watched only as video-on-demand, but it is expected to be telecast on TV during Gandhi’s 150 birth anniversary celebrations. Mahatma Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869.

About 500 visitors can watch the audio-visual show for free on India’s Independence Day.