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Hey Ram
Directed by	Kamal Haasan
Produced by	Kamal Haasan
Written by	Kamal Haasan Manohar Shyam Joshi (Hindi dialogue)
Starring	Kamal Haasan Shah Rukh Khan Hema Malini Rani Mukerji Girish Karnad Naseeruddin Shah Vasundhara Das
Music by	Ilaiyaraaja
Cinematography	Tirru
Editing by	Renu Saluja
Distributed by	Raajkamal Films International
Release date(s)	February 18, 2000
Running time	202 min. (Tamil version) 199 min. (Hindi version)
Language	Tamil, Hindi / Urdu
IMDb profile

Hey Ram (Devanagari: हे राम, Nastaliq: ہے رام, translation: "Oh Ram!" or "Oh God!") is a controversial Indian film released both in Tamil and Hindi in 2000 and written, directed, produced by and starring Kamal Haasan. A period drama told in flashback, the semi-fictional plot centres around India's Partition and the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.

The film was a box office failure in India when released (thanks in part to numerous bans by local distributors weary of its heavy-hitting themes), but garnered positive reviews from critics who praised its performances and technical prowess, but steered clear of voicing an opinion on its artistic content.

Taglines
"An experiment with truth."

Contents 1 Setting 2 Synopsis 3 Cast 4 Awards 5 Trivia 6 External links

The film is about a protagonist's journey from religious hatred to love with the theme of the partition of India in the background. Its relevance in the present Indian environment clouded by religious extremism was widely unrecognized. This is the story of Saket Ram, as narrated by his grandson. The film takes place as Ram, a retired archeologist, lies on the deathbed, on December 6, 1999, the 7th anniversary of the destruction of Babri Mosque in Ayodhya.

The movie begins at present day with Saket Ram (Kamal Haasan), an 89-year-old South Indian Brahmin who is dying. The scene reverts back to the past as Saket remembers the 1940s, when he and his good friend, Amjad Ali Khan (Shahrukh Khan) were archaeologists working together under their boss, Mortimer Wheeler, in Mohenjo-daro (Indus Valley Civilization) in Karachi. Relations are pleasant between the Indians and the English, and Saket and Amjad do not approve of Partition and the creation of Pakistan.

Aparna Ram (Rani Mukerji), Saket's simple Bengali wife, is a school teacher. She lives in Calcutta in the midst of riots and chaos over the issue of the formation of Pakistan and the call by Mohammad Ali Jinnah for "Direct Action".^{[citation needed]} Saket goes to Calcutta and is swept into the madness. In one instance, Saket saves an innocent Sikh girl from the hands of a barbaric Muslim gang. When he returns to his house, he finds a group of Muslims entering his house. They brutally rape and murder Aparna. Saket, unable to cope with his tragic loss,kills the Muslims who raped and killed his wife in a fit of rage.

Outside his house, he runs into another Brahmin, Sriram Abhyankar (Atul Kulkarni), who is part of a Hindu militant group determined to fight the Muslims' malice with similar brute force, and assassinate Gandhi for what they perceive to be his treachery towards India (Gandhi wanted Hindus and Muslims to co-exist peacefully at "any cost", even at the cost of tens of thousands of innocent lives of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs (whose womenfolk were the chief target of the rioters and those retaliating). Gandhi still held the hope in his heart of winning over the hearts of the rioters through sheer self-pity. However, Abhyankar and his fellow extremists had lost patience at Mahatma Gandhi's unreasonable stand to appease Pakistan, who had already invaded Kashmir by that time.Gandhiji was threatening the newly founded Indian state to pay Rs. 50 crore to Pakistan and some territorial concessions as well.

Urged by family to remarry, he weds Mythili (Vasundhara Das). However, on a trip to Maharashtra, he reunites with Abhyankar and becomes a part of his militant organisation that plots to get do away with Gandhi. Due to an unfortunate horse-riding incident, Abhyankar is left a quadriplegic and has Ram swear that he will carry on his work, that of killing the Mahatma.

Saket comes to the belief that Mahatma Gandhi (Naseeruddin Shah) is solely responsible for the division of India and of the two religions. Hindu fundamentalists, including Saket, are furious and plot to murder Gandhi. However, Saket, after several incidents surrounding and leading to Amjad's death (with whom he reunites briefly in a contested Delhi area), changes his mind about Gandhi. He decides against assassinating the leader, and attempts to beg for forgiveness. Soon afterwards, Gandhi is killed by another assassin, Nathuram Godse. Ironically, Gandhi dies without his famous last words :"Hey Ram!" as popularly believed, and as in Richard Attenborough's Gandhi (film).(Though actual witnesses have always denied it.)

Then on, Saket Ram lives by Gandhian principles. As the 89-year-old Saket Ram is being taken to the hospital, he is told of bomb blasts in the city due to Hindu-Muslim communal riots. He asks "Innuma (Even now)?". They were forced by the police to be taken into an underground place for their security, but Saket Ram dies there.

• Kamal Haasan as Saket Ram
• Shah Rukh Khan as Amjad Ali Khan
• Hema Malini as Ambujam Iyengar
• Rani Mukerji as Aparna Ram
• Atul Kulkarni as Shriram Abhayankar
• Vasundhara Das as Mythili Iyengar
• Girish Karnad as Uppilli Iyengar
• Saurabh Shukla as Lalwani
• Kavignar Vaali as Bhashyam Iyengar
• Naseeruddin Shah as Mahatma Gandhi
• Shruti Haasan as Shruti Patel

• Written and Directed by: Kamal Haasan
• Produced by: N.Chandrahasan, Kamal Haasan
• Music: Ilaiyaraaja
• Executive Producer: D.N.Subramaniyan
• Cinematography: Tirru
• Edited by: Renu Saluja
• Art Director: Sabu Cyril

The film has won the following awards since its release:

2000 National Film Awards (India)

• Won - Silver Lotus Award - Best Supporting Actor - Atul Kulkarni
• Won - Silver Lotus Award - Best Costume Design - Sarika
• Won - Silver Lotus Award - Best Special Effects - Manthra

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• Rather than shoot one version of the film in Tamil before dubbing it for its Hindi release, director Kamal Haasan opted to film two separate versions back-to-back - once in Tamil, and again in Hindi. Differences between the two releases are minimal, with only a few pieces of dialogue being given to different characters and with a greater amount of English dialogue in the Tamil version.
• The film's title references popular belief that Gandhi's dying words were "Hey, Ram" ("Oh, God"), however others claim he instead died instantly. In this movie's enactment of the assassination, the words are not spoken.
• Hindi film star Shah Rukh Khan reportedly had so much trouble speaking his lines for the Tamil version of the movie that his dialogue had to be written phonetically in English on cue cards.
• Shruti K. Haasan (daughter of Kamal Haasan), makes a cameo appearance as Vallabhai Patel's daughter.
• The songs in the movie were composed by Ilaiyaraaja, which were highly acclaimed and ahead of times. Songs composed by another music director were already composed and shot. Ilaiyaraaja had to compose and score for the pre-shot song scenes.
• This was the first Indian movie for which the background score was done overseas (at Budapest, Hungary) and more importantly, using the prestigious Budapest Symphony Orchestra, with the budget being Rs. 40 lakhs approximately. The original score running more than hour was written by Ilaiyaraaja in 10 days.
• All the actors in this film have given their own playback in both Tamil and Hindi.
• The pistol used by Saket Ram in the movie is a Mauser C96
• This is Shahrukh Khan's only film in Tamil.
• This film has a kiss involving Rani Mukherji and Kamal Hassan

• Hey Ram at the Internet Movie Database
• Philip's Fil-ums review

v • d • e Cinematic depictions of and references to Mahatma Gandhi

1963: Nine Hours to Rama (J. S. Casshyap) · 1982: Gandhi (Ben Kingsley) · 1993: Sardar (Annu Kapoor) · 1996: The Making of the Mahatma (Rajit Kapur) · 1998: Jinnah (Sam Dastor) · 2000: Hey Ram (Naseeruddin Shah) · 2000: Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar (Mohan Gokhale) · 2001: Veer Savarkar (Surendra Rajan) · 2004: Swades · 2005: Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara (himself) · 2005: Mangal Pandey: The Rising (himself) · 2005: Water (Mohan Jhangiani) · 2006: Lage Raho Munna Bhai (Dilip Prabhavalkar) · 2007: Shankar Dada Zindabad (Dilip Prabhavalkar) · 2007: Gandhi, My Father (Darshan Jariwala)