Hey Ram

Plot

In 1999 Chennai, 89-year-old Saket Ram lies on his deathbed under the care of his grandson, Saket Ram Jr.—a historical fiction novelist—and their family physician, Dr. Munawar. To comfort his grandfather, Ram Jr. begins narrating a complex, personal story from the old man's youth that he intends to transform into his next novel. As the narration begins, the elderly Ram relives the tumultuous memories of his past.

In 1946, a young Saket Ram works as an archaeologist in Mohenjo-daro under Mortimer Wheeler alongside his closest friend, Amjad Ali Khan, a Pathan Muslim. Both men deeply oppose the impending Partition of India. Unlike many of his peers, Amjad firmly resolves to remain in India, viewing it as his true homeland. When rising communal tensions force the archaeological site to shut down, Ram returns to his wife, Aparna, in Calcutta. He arrives in the middle of the horrific Direct Action Day riots. While out searching for food, Ram rescues a young Sikh girl from an aggressive Muslim mob. However, upon returning home, he is taken hostage by a group of rioters led by his family tailor, Altaf. The men brutally rape Aparna and slit her throat when they hear the police approaching. Devastated and unhinged by the loss, Ram hunts down Altaf and executes him without mercy.

Driven by vengeance, Ram roams the bloody streets killing rioters until he encounters Shriram Abhyankar, a Thanjavur Marathi leading a militant Hindu faction. Recognizing Ram's absolute grief and anger, Abhyankar recruits him into his militia, radicalizing him with banned literature and framing Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi as the sole traitor responsible for the slaughter of Hindus and the division of the nation. In 1947, Ram returns to his ancestral home in Thanjavur. Pressured by his family, he agrees to remarry and weds Mythili, the daughter of close family friends. Despite the festive environment, Ram remains hollow, viewing the marriage through the lens of the country's violent political divorce. He is further disturbed to learn that Mythili and her family are devout followers of Gandhi.

Ram leaves for Calcutta alone to confront his grief, joining a mob that corners Gandhi and Bengal's Prime Minister, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy. When the leaders beg the crowd for forgiveness, the mob relents, but Ram remains secretly unyielding. Over time, Ram returns home and genuinely falls in love with Mythili. However, during their honeymoon in Bombay, they cross paths with a disguised Abhyankar, who introduces them to a wealthy, dethroned Maharaja. Alongside a traumatized Sindhi refugee named Manohar Lalwani, the extremist fundamentalists stoke Ram's dormant hatred. They convince him that Gandhi must be eliminated to protect the Hindu population, tasking Ram with the assassination. After a horse-riding accident leaves Abhyankar paralyzed, Ram swears a solemn oath to renounce his personal life and fulfill the mission.

Production

Development

Kamal Haasan had spent all of 1998 on filming Marudhanayagam, which ended up in production hell due to lack of funds, and did not act in any other film during the period (barring Kaathala Kaathala), much to the dismay of his fans. To please them, he sought to begin and finish another film before resuming work on Marudhanayagam, which became Hey Ram. Another motivation for Haasan to do the film was because, although he was born in a family of people devoted towards Mahatma Gandhi, he himself was not initially a devotee, and had a critical view of Gandhi even as a teenager. Haasan initially intended to title the film as Satya Sodanai (transl. Experiments With Truth), a reference to the title of Gandhi's autobiography, published in English as The Story of My Experiments with Truth, but later decided on Hey Ram, the last words allegedly spoken by Gandhi when he was assassinated by Nathuram Godse. The film was produced by Haasan and his brother Chandrahasan under their banner Raaj Kamal Films International, and was the company's first film to be shot simultaneously in Tamil and Hindi. The dialogues for the Hindi version were written by Manohar Shyam Joshi. Cinematography was handled by Tirru, and editing by Renu Saluja.

Casting

Haasan chose the Hindi actor Shah Rukh Khan to portray the Pathan character Amjad Ali Khan, partly because the actor's father was a Pathan who was from Peshawar. Though not a native Tamil speaker, Khan dubbed in his own voice. It marks Khan's debut in Tamil cinema. He did not ask for any remuneration from Haasan, as he considered it an honour and privilege to work with one of his mentors. The Marathi actor Mohan Gokhale was initially cast as Shriram Abhyankar; he had started working on the film in Madras but died suddenly due to a heart attack. Haasan later chose Atul Kulkarni, another Marathi actor, to do the role. Hema Malini, who had reduced acting in films by then, accepted to act as Ambujam after being offered the role by Haasan. For the role of Ambujam's daughter Mythili, Haasan initially wanted Malini's daughter Esha Deol; the role ultimately went to Vasundhara Das. It is her first major appearance in a Tamil film. Hassan's daughter Shruti made her acting debut, portraying Vallabhai Patel's daughter.

Haasan initially considered having British actor Ben Kingsley, who portrayed Gandhi in a 1982 film, to reprise the role in Hey Ram but dropped the idea as he felt "it would be cliched and the film wouldn't be honest". He later approached Naseeruddin Shah, who portrayed Gandhi in the 1998 play Mahatma vs Gandhi and had unsuccessfully auditioned for the 1982 film. Shah was initially reluctant due to the long hours of makeup required, but eventually accepted. Haasan wanted a Bengali woman to portray Saket Ram's Bengali wife Aparna, and chose Rani Mukerji, also because of her Hindi cinema stardom. Saurabh Shukla was cast as a Sindhi character Lalwani after Haasan was impressed with his performance in Satya (1998). Girish Karnad, who portrayed Saket Ram's father-in-law Uppili Iyengar, recommended Sharad Ponkshe, who portrayed Godse in the Marathi play Me Nathuram Godse Boltoy, to Haasan for reprising his role in the film. Gandhi's great-grandson Tushar wanted to join the film, and Haasan accepted; Tushar plays himself. Mohini Mathur, who was 13 years old when witnessing Gandhi's assassination, accepted Haasan's request to play Amjad Ali Khan's mother Haajra.

Filming

Principal photography began on 22 March 1999. The then Shankaracharya of Kanchi had filmed an interview scene for the film but later requested that his portions be removed to avoid controversy. To achieve on-site dubbing of dialogues, Haasan hired Srivastav from Mumbai. Production of the film cost a total of ₹11 crore (worth ₹92 crore in 2021 prices), excluding Haasan's salary. To show Mohenjodaro of ancient times, the crew recreated a set at a village near Chennai as the original location was located in Pakistan which the crew felt was impossible to go to, for political reasons. Sabu Cyril recreated the set of Birla Mandir at Ooty. In order to recreate the ambience of late evening in winter for the scene where Gandhi got assassinated, Thiru "had to get the special lights, rig the whole area, create a scaffolding end bring in the amber look. We could also manage the sunlight-peeping-through-the-trees effect".

Soundtrack

Initially Haasan chose L. Subramaniam to compose music for the film. Haasan completed shooting the whole film along with the song sequences that were composed by Subramaniam. According to Haasan, when he approached Subramaniam for the final sound for mixing, he had asked for ₹1 crore, which was not the amount agreed upon earlier. So Haasan went to Ilaiyaraaja to help him solve this situation. Haasan told Ilaiyaraaja that the songs had already been shot with the music composed by Subramaniam and he wanted to remove the songs and re-shoot them with Ilaiyaraaja's. On hearing that, Ilaiyaraaja told Haasan that he could fix it without Haasan needing to re-shoot any footage or songs; Haasan agreed after initial reluctance. Subramaniam said he left the project, fearing that his association with the film may offend Hindu people due to its contentious storyline.

The lyrics for the songs were not changed, but Ilaiyaraaja composed new tunes for the songs that would be in sync with the already shot footage. The background music and the songs were recorded in Hungary's Budapest Symphony Orchestra and thus Hey Ram became the first Tamil film and the second Indian film to be re-recorded with a foreign symphony orchestra. The first one was Ilaiyaraaja's own score for the Malayalam film Guru (1997). The song "Isaiyil Thodangudhamma" was not present initially, but Ilaiyaraaja had seen an opportunity for a possible song in the scene and asked Haasan to give him a chance to add one. But Haasan, being the writer-director of the film, did not see it. Then Ilaiyaraaja convinced Haasan to trust him with this and brought Hindustani singer Ajoy Chakrabarty to sing "Isaiyil Thodanguthamma" and also writing the lyrics for the same. Chennai Online wrote, "The album, with its rich acoustic score, is one of his [Ilaiyaraaja's] best efforts". S R Ramakrishna of The Music Magazine wrote "Ilaiyaraja's score brings back the grandeur, allusiveness and haunting beauty of his best work. Hey Ram is an exciting album".

Release

Hey Ram was released simultaneously in Tamil and Hindi on 18 February 2000. A digitally remastered version of the film was released on 8 November 2019 on Amazon Prime Video. Internationally, the film was screened at the 25th Toronto International Film Festival and at the 2000 Locarno Festival. In 2015, Hey Ram was screened at the Habitat Film Festival. The film was re-released at Sathyam Cinemas on 8 November 2019.

Controversies

There were protests and press releases by political parties in select centres against the perceived negative depiction of Gandhi.

Critical reception

Hey Ram received widespread critical acclaim. T. Krithika Reddy from The Hindu wrote, "Live sound, prosthetic make-up (Micheal Westmore), splendid cinematography (Thiru), magnificent art work (Sabu Cyril) and painstakingly designed costumes (Sarika) are some of the other highlights of this magnum opus, which is distinct in style and content...The chemistry between Kamal and Rani is explosive to say the least. Shah Rukh Khan, as usual comes up with an impeccable performance. Vasundhara, as the stoic second wife makes an impressive debut. Naseerudin Shah as Gandhi steals a clear march over the others in supporting roles." Dinakaran wrote, "The starting of 2000 itself has given a great joy to Tamil cinema! A Tamilian has created a film that caters to international standards." Methil Renuka of India Today praised the film's "technical wizardry" and cast performances but called it "difficult to categorize". K. N. Vijiyan of New Straits Times said, "To this writer, the message of the need for unity among various religious faiths was well told by Kamalhaasan". S. Chandramouli of Kalki praised the acting of Kamal Haasan, crisp dialogues, art direction for recreating old times, symbolism but felt other characters speaking different languages gives an impression of watching a film from other language while also felt Kamal who slowly built up his character realistically went hurried with the character's change of heart and concluded saying this film will be enjoyed by urban audience but language will definitely be an issue in villages in spite of that, if this film wins, it will be good for the country and for the world of Tamil cinema. Kala Krishanan Ramesh of Deccan Herald wrote, "Hey Ram is a film not to be missed. For though it`s too long and too simplistic it is part of us, and a landmark for every thinking Indian".

Box office

The Hindi version of Hey Ram grossed ₹8.91 crore in India and $550,000 overseas.

The Hindi version opened on 18 February 2000 across 115 screens and netted ₹2.39 crore in opening week and ₹5.32 crore lifetime. It was the 35th-highest-grossing film of 2000 in India.

At the overseas box office, the Hindi version grossed $350,000 in opening week and $550,000 lifetime.