Hey Ram is perhaps one of the best Indian movies I have ever seen. Kamal Hassan is a genius for making a movie like this. His acting is par excellence as always. The rest of the cast which includes Rani Mukherjee, Shah Rukh Khan, Naseeruddin Shah and Hema Malini among others have done a great job as well. Each character has been thoroughly researched to the most minute details. Kudos to Kamal for this.
The story is about 89 year old Saket Ram (a south indian brahmin played by Kamal) who thinks about his past while lying on his deathbed. During the days of partition, he gets caught in the hindu-muslim riots. His Bengali wife Aparna(Rani Mukherjee) is brutally raped and murdered by a muslim gang. Saket then goes on a rampage and wants to kill every muslim he possibly can. He meets Shri Ram Abhyankar (Atul Kulkarni) who convinces him that Mahatma Gandhi is the cause for the muslims’ arrogance. Saket then returns to Madras where he is wed to Mythili (Vasundhara Das). He does not love her at first but falls in love with her later on and is scared of this. The conflict he goes through in his mind is brillinly acted out by Kamal. Finally, Saket renounces his marriage and goes to Delhi where he wants to assasinate Gandhi. However, he loses his weapon, the search of which takes him to a muslim colony where he meets his long lost friend Amjad (SRK). Amjad makes Saket see ’’light’’ and brings out the hindu-muslim ’’bhai-bhai’’ sentiment. However, Amjad himself is killed in the riots.
The plot is very intense but is very captivating. All actors were simply GREAT. The movie takes you to many places in India...and the culture in that particular place is portrayed brilliantly. It is a pity that the movie bombed. But I guess this is only because the audience is not ready for a movie like this.