<html> <!--Generated by Angelfire: L00S00--> <head> <title>Hey Ram Movie Review</title> </head> <body bgcolor="#ee82ee" text="#000000" link="#ffff00" alink="#ff0000" vlink="#90ee90"> <basefont size="3"> <!--Header--> <h1 align="center">Hey Ram Movie Review</h1> <!--EndHeader--> <!--Freetext--><center><img src="ram.jpg"></center> <b>Hey Ram, Kamal Haasan's second directorial venture, is a vintage look at the partition of India and Pakistan. The film deals with a very bold subject and is done unlike any other film that has showcased the sensitive issue of partition. Kamal Haasan, in his own words has said that it is not a film that is trying to recreate history, rather it is a film that shows our history in a different light. Quite different from the history lessons we get in school! What say? The movie starts from the deathbed of an 89-year-old man, Saket Ram (Kamal Haasan), his grandson by his side. It shows Saket Ram then slipping into a flashback, where he is an archeologist and working on the site of Mohanjedaro in Karachi. There he is accompanied by his best friend Amjad Khan (Shah Rukh Khan). Till then there is a lot of merry making and dancing alongwith their fellow English Sahibs. The movie takes a turn when Saket Ram goes to Calcutta to his wife Aparna (Rani Mukherjee). The city is already in strife because of Jinnah's demand for a separate state of Pakistan. All hell breaks loose, when once Saket Ram saves a Sikh girl from an angry Muslim mob. To avenge this, the mob led by, incidentally, Aparna's tailor- Altaf, breaks into Saket's house, assaults him, ties him and very gruesomely rapes and murders his wife. This is a real hair raising scene and also technically very well shot, especially the scene where they show Rani's throat slit and blood oozing, ugh! This itself turns Saket Ram maniacal and puts him on a wild killing spree, avenging his wife's disgrace and killing every possible Muslim in sight. On his apparent sortie he comes across a bunch of right-winged Hindu fundamentalists, led by Abhyankar (a Marathi stage actor). Abhyankar preaches him about the need of the Hindus to come together and save their brethren from the Islamists who according to them are mere intruders from across the Khyber. There are quite some scathing attacks on Mahatma Gandhi (played by Naserruddin Shah) who is portrayed as endorsing the Muslim demand for a separate state. (We even have a declaration in the film - it's not the Muslims, its not Mohammed Ali Jinnah, it is only Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi who has to be blamed for dividing India). Meanwhile Saket Ram also gets married a second time to a girl, (a match- made by his uncle), another light eyed beauty. Saket Ram does not love her and consummates the marriage only when he is under the influence of alcohol, a mighty excuse for Kamal Haasan to include one more hot scene! Saket Ram is entrusted the task of killing Mahatma Gandhi, after his friend Abhyankar is left paralysed in a freak accident. He has a change of heart only when he falls prey to a bunch of Muslims, where he also meets old chum Amjad Khan, an ardent Gandhi admirer. Both are trapped in a crossfire between the sparring communities and Amjad Khan finally succumbs to a bullet. The movie also shows the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, and has Tushar Gandhi thrown in for good measure, who towards the end, collects his great grandfather's slippers and spectacles from Saket Ram's grandson. A case of fact or fiction ??? Overall it is a highly watchable film, which has some ace performances by Kamal Haasan and Shah Rukh Khan, the latter stands out in the film inspite of having a miniscule role. Of the female cast, Rani looks very pretty as the Bengali wife and even recites some Bengali poetry. The other female also has a very lucid charm bearing innocence. In short the girls have looked very sensuous in their censor-sensitive scenes. Technically the film is brilliant and has some very well morphed scenes. The scene were Saket and his second wife are in conjugal bliss and the wife metamorphoses into a gun, rightfully depicting fixation for his cause, deserves special mention. Not much can be said though about the songs of the film, except for Chahe pandit ho,….. Janmo ki Jwala and the title soundtrack. Finally, members of the Sangh Parivar are going to have a field day seeing this film, as the first half has a lot of indirect references to their ideology. A last word of advice, just go and watch this film as soon as you can, because banning and creating a furore over such rabble-rousing movies is very much in nowadays. </b> <!--EndFreetext--> <p> </body> </html>