What if Mahatma hit baseball in US

ibnlive.com is on mobile now. Read news, watch videos
be a Citizen Journalist. Log on to m.ibnlive.com NOW!

Top Headlines

Top Videos

Most Popular

• FM TUNES BUDGET FOR TAXPAYER, MKTS FACE THE MUSIC 

• Udayan's View: Budget 2009, a game of patience 

• A study in comparison: Education budget up Rs 7K cr 

• Face The Budget: Political response to Budget 2009-10 

• The verdict: CNN-IBN panelists rate Pranab's Budget  

• Reform hopes dashed, market watchers feel let down  

• I-T exemption limit raised | FBT rolled back | Taxes and you 

• Pranab skips two paras of Budget speech, apologises 

• Bengal benefits, Mamata and Pranab budget for their state 

• Income tax limits raised; farmers, exporters get sops 

• Watch: Dalal Street reacts to the Budget 

• Budget: Pranab's chance to create his own legacy 

• FM has done a fairly good job: Narayana Murthy 

• Budget to focus on social spend, growth 

• Education reform will be for all Indians: Sibal 

• The Budget That Isn't: Cyrus gears up for Budget 

• EVMs are tamper proof, says Election Commission 

• Watch: Railway exams disrupted in Mysore, Banglaore 

• Watch: Maneka writes to PM over threat to Varun's life 

• One-upmanship: Sonia, Pawar in foodgrain politics 

• Buy that big car: SUVs, petrol trucks to cost less 

• Life saving drugs, LCDs cheaper; Set-top-box costlier 

• Defence budget unchanged; Army gets lion's share 

• Minimum Rs 30 lakh needed to be called wealthy 

• TAX BREAKS, WELFARE SCHEMES IN COMMON MAN'S BUDGET 

• Common man gets a treat, over 15 schemes 

• Health budget up by Rs 4,000 cr, 6 new AIIMS in cities 

• Full text: Union Budget 2009 

• Bengal benefits, Mamata and Pranab budget for their state 

• Software industry gets tax benefits for one more yr 

Photogallery

Find us on Facebook | Join IBNLive community

Stay ahead with G-Talk Buddy | Click now!

New York: Mahatma Gandhi played baseball during a top secret visit to the USA in 1933—hold on! this is not historical fact but the fiction of a film.

Gandhi at the Bat shows the Mahatma playing for the New York Yankees, but US President Franklin D Roosevelt ensures that the trip is kept secret in national interest. However, long after the visit, baseball historians are intrigued by stories about a mysterious pinch hitter.

The film, touted as a mocumentary, has been made by Los Angeles-based Alec Boehm and Stephanie Argy and comes from the production house Mental Slapstick.

"It was a short story that was in the New Yorker magazine published in 1983. My co-directing partner Stephanie found the story in a book on great sports humour and she said, ‘we have to make a film of this,” Boehm said.

However, the story was based on a long lost news account of the incident so they decided to make it into newsreel that was only recently discovered.

The filmmakers plan to take the film to the festival circuit and it can also be found in the Web site www.gandhiatthebat.com .

So we can now watch the Mahatma as he gets on the baseball diamond in sepia tones and flickering motion. And Gandhi, though in real history went to bat with great success for India. But, as a person with a great sense of humour, he probably would also have enjoyed the spoof.