Hey Ram (2000)

Saketh Ram's wife is raped and killed during direct action day riots in Calcutta. He is convinced that Mahatma Gandhi is responsible for all the problems happening in the country. He sets out to kill him.

Director:

Kamal Hassan

Writers:

Kamal Hassan, Manohar Shyam Joshi (Hindi dialogue)

Stars:

Kamal Hassan, Shah Rukh Khan, Rani Mukerji

5 wins & 7 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Kamal Hassan	...	Saketh Ram (as Kamal Haasan)
Shah Rukh Khan	...	Amjad Ali Khan
Rani Mukerji	...	Aparna Ram
Hema Malini	...	Ambujam Iyengar
Girish Karnad	...	Uppilli Iyengar
Naseeruddin Shah	...	Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
Om Puri	...	Goel
Vikram Gokhale	...	Maharaja
Saurabh Shukla	...	Manohar Lalwani
Nasser	...	Police Officer
Abbas	...	Saketh Ram's Grandson
Atul Kulkarni	...	Shriram Abhyankar
Showkar Janaki	...	Mythili's Grandmother (as Sowcar Janaki)
Iravati Harshe	...	Nafisa (as Iravathi Harshe)
Vasundhara Das	...	Mythili Iyengar (as Vasundhra Das)

Storyline

The film starts with Saketh Ram as a very old man and almost immediately goes into flashback. As a young man he is among his friends, in conviviality. He has taken a Bengali wife, Aparna, and everything is wonderful in his life. But the year is 1946, and the imminent independence of India from British suzerainty is complicated by religious antagonism between the Hindu majority and the large Muslim minority, who demand their own independent state. Saketh and Aparna visit Calcutta; rioting is reported, but Saketh goes out to get some food, and he soon encounters a Hindu woman being chased by Muslim rioters. He rescues her, but the rioters later come to his house, and brutally rape and then kill his wife. Saketh is devastated and takes to the streets, determined personally to kill as many Muslims as he can find. He meets up with Sriram Abhiyankar, who is leading a group of Hindu extremists, and Saketh becomes temporarily taken with the cause himself. At the same time, he is persuaded to ...

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Plot Keywords:

rape | death | assassination | flashback | religion | 

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Taglines:

An experiment with truth.

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Genres:

Drama | History

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Details

Country:

India

Language:

Tamil Hindi

Release Date:

18 February 2000 (India)

Also Known As:

Hey Ram - Augenblicke der Zärtlichkeit

Filming Locations:

India

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$169,402 (USA) (18 February 2000)

Gross:

$274,675 (USA) (25 February 2000)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Raajkamal Films International

Technical Specs

Runtime:

186 min

Color:

Black and White Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Initially Director-Producer Kamal Hassan had signed Mohan Gokhale for the role of Shriram Abhyankar, but while staying in Chennai, India, in a hotel, Gokhale died of a heart attack.

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Goofs

In a scene where the car stops at a railway gate, Kamal's watch goes missing in one of the shots and in the next shot he has a watch.

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Quotes

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi: I am willing to take all this communal hatred in the form a bullet, If I am promised that along with that they will also bury this communal hatred and live together as one community.

User Reviews

This certainly isn't a no-brainer

This is certainly not for those who like to see brainless junk in the form of a movie. It has a class of its own, and requires equally classy audience. You wont find it interesting if you are used to the regular kind of movies.

Kamal Haasan has worked hard in selecting the crew. Each important character that appears in the movie, speaks his/her own language, in their native accent. Example, Rani appears as a Bengali, Shahrukh Khan as a proper 'Khan'.

One small trouble with this movie is the number of languages used - which perhaps results in a slight lack of integrity.

Musical score by Ilayaraja is excellent.