Hey Ram (हे राम) 2000

Published on April 6, 2013 in Cinema

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Crew
Cast
Plot
Box Office
Awards

Banner	Raajkamal Films International
Director	Kamal Hassan
Writer	Kamal Hassan
Producer	Kamal Hassan
Production executive	D.N. Subramaniam
Music Director	Ilaiyaraaja
Cinematography	S. Tirru
Film Editing	Renu Saluja
Art Director	Sabu Cyril
Camera Operator
Assistant Cameramen
Playback Singers	Kamal Haasan, Shruti Hassan, Rani Mukherjee, Asha Bhosle, Hariharan, Anupama, Preeti Uttam, Vibha Sharma, Ajoy Chakraborthy

Character	Actor / Actress
Saketh Ram	Kamal Hassan
Amjad Ali Khan	Shah Rukh Khan
Aparna Ram	Rani Mukerji
Ambujam Iyengar	Hema Malini
Uppilli Iyengar	Girish Karnad
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi	Naseeruddin Shah
Goel	Om Puri
Maharaja	Vikram Gokhale
Manohar Lalwani	Saurabh Shukla
Police Officer	Nasser
Saketh Ram's Grandson	Abbas
Shriram Abhyankar	Atul Kulkarni
Mythili's Grandmother	Showkar Janaki
Nafisa	Iravati Harshe
Mythili Iyengar	Vasundhara Das
Jr. Saket Ram	Gautham Kanthadai
Vasantha Mami	Nagamani Mahadevan
Rani	Shubhangi Gokhale
Hazara Begum	Mohini Mathur
Old Bannu Refugee	Ram Mohan
Shaheed Suhrawardy	Arun Bali
Altaf Tailor	Shadaab Khan
Qureshi	Yatin Karyekar
Jalal	Manoj Pahwa
Mrs. Bina Lalwani	Madhuri Sanjeev
Nathuram Godse	Sharad Ponkshe
Himself	Tushar Gandhi
K.T. Chari	V.S. Raghavan
Chari	Delhi Ganesh
Govardhan	Gollapudi Maruthi Rao
Dr. Yegyam	Y.G. Mahendran
Veda	Arun Mehra
Mohan Gandhi Raman	Chandrahasan
Mortimer Wheeler	Lewis K. Elbinger
Vallabhai Patel's Daughter	Shruti K. Haasan
Inspector at the Marina Hotel	K.S. Ramesh
Altaf's Father	Umesh Sharma
Mr. Chattopadhay	S.K. Ghosh
Mrs. Chattopadhay	Annapoorna
Doctor at the Delhi Hospital	Anand
Inspector at the Delhi Hospital	Ambarish
E.V.K. Nair	U.B.G. Menon
Drunken Man at Calcutta	Bolai Sarkar
Jagannathan Iyengar	Nagaraja Bhagavathar
Blind Girl of Belliaghatta	Baby Taj
One Eyed Chotu Ram	Bobby
Amjad's Father	Mohammed Ali
Sardar Vallabhai Patel	Arun Sadekar
Abul Kalam Azad	Yunus
Jawaharlal Nehru	Raj Patra
Lord Mountbatten	Savar
Dr. Babu Rajendra Prasad	Amitabh Srivastava
Henri Cartier Bresson	Gilles
Abha Ben	Suprithi
Manu Ben	Rashmi
Gopal Godse	Rahul
Ramachandra Badge	Jayasimha
Vishnu Narayana Apte	Vikram
Vishnu Karkare	Sirish Purohit
Sankar Kishtayaa	Aravind Akash
Madanlal Pahwa	Vivek
	Shabhir
	Sheik Ahamed
	Amar
	Robert
Old Sikh Taxi Driver	Manjit Singh
Pyarelal	Sarfaraz Khan
Royal Woman	Jaya Murali
Raja's Friend	Suryanarayana
Raja's Friend	Prof. Angamuthu
	Prasanth Nikhale
	Arindam Sil
	Ajay
Parthasarathy	A.C. Murali
Pushpa	Nikitha Palekar
Sikh Girl	Twinkle
Jagannathan	Sivakumar
Kitty Iyengar	Narasimha
Neelakanta Iyengar	R.C. Sunder
Cheema Iyengar	Sreenivasan
Lavani Dancer	Prachi Shah
Lavani Group	Maya Jadhav
Venkataram Iyer	Venkatraman
Mridangist	R. Varadharajan
Car Driver	Selvaraj
Chowkidar	Ganesh Gurang
Pathan	Dinesh Chibber
Doctor at the Delhi Hospital	Preeth
Thampura Girl	Charanva
	Swathi
	Dharthi
	Varsha
	Venkata Lakshmi
	Parimala
	Saraswathi
	Karpagam
Rangam	Baby Sharanya
Rangappa	Master Balaji
Cheenu	Master Ambi
	Baby Sanjana Khanna
	Baby Zara
Amjad's Son	Akshay Bhatiya
	Baby Ishwarya
	Pranita Bishnoi
	Master Prakash Balaji
	Vaali

Plot
The movie begins at present day with Saket Ram (Kamal Haasan), an 89-year-old Hindu man at his death bed. The scene reverts to the past as Saket remembers the 1940s, when he and his good friend, Amjad Ali Khan (Shah Rukh Khan) are archaeologists working together under their boss, Mortimer Wheeler, in Mohenjo-daro (Indus Valley Civilization) in the then North-West India. 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". 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 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 Hindu dominated India (Gandhi wanted Hindus and Muslims to co-exist peacefully with hope of winning over the hearts of the rioters through sheer self-pity). However, Abhyankar and his fellow extremists had lost patience at what they deemed Mahatma Gandhi's unreasonable stand to appease Pakistan, who had already invaded Kashmir by that time. Gandhi was pressuring the newly founded Indian state to pay Rs. 62 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 do away with Gandhi. Due to an horse-riding accident, 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 and also of having supported whom they viewed as the enemy. 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 congested 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 film Gandhi (film). 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 are forced by the police to be taken into an underground shelter for their security, but Saket Ram dies there. In his funeral,Gandhiji's grandson comes and sees Saket's private room which is full of historical photos. Saket's grandson hands over Gandhi's footwear and spectacle which Saket had previously collected from the place of shootout and had treasured it all the while.",

Plot

The movie begins at present day with Saket Ram (Kamal Haasan), an 89-year-old Hindu man at his death bed. The scene reverts to the past as Saket remembers the 1940s, when he and his good friend, Amjad Ali Khan (Shah Rukh Khan) are archaeologists working together under their boss, Mortimer Wheeler, in Mohenjo-daro (Indus Valley Civilization) in the then North-West India. 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". 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 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 Hindu dominated India (Gandhi wanted Hindus and Muslims to co-exist peacefully with hope of winning over the hearts of the rioters through sheer self-pity). However, Abhyankar and his fellow extremists had lost patience at what they deemed Mahatma Gandhi's unreasonable stand to appease Pakistan, who had already invaded Kashmir by that time. Gandhi was pressuring the newly founded Indian state to pay Rs. 62 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 do away with Gandhi. Due to an horse-riding accident, 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 and also of having supported whom they viewed as the enemy. 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 congested 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 film Gandhi (film).

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 are forced by the police to be taken into an underground shelter for their security, but Saket Ram dies there. In his funeral,Gandhiji's grandson comes and sees Saket's private room which is full of historical photos. Saket's grandson hands over Gandhi's footwear and spectacle which Saket had previously collected from the place of shootout and had treasured it all the while.",

Release date	18-Feb-2000
Budget
Revenue

Filmfare Awards
2001 Filmfare Award Best Supporting Actor Atul Kulkarni

Filmfare Awards South
2001 Filmfare Award - Tamil Film Industry Best Actor Kamal Hassan

National Film Awards, India
2000 Silver Lotus Award Best Costume Designer Sarika
Best Special Effects Manthra
Best Supporting Actor Atul Kulkarni

Screen Weekly Awards
2001 Won Screen Best Background Music Ilayaraja
Screen Best Actor Kamal Hassan
Best Art Direction Sabu Cyril
Best Cinematography S. Tirru
Best Sound Recording Shrivastav
Best Supporting Actor Atul Kulkarni
Most Promising Newcomer - Female Vasundhara Das