This movie has an intriguing story.
Two foundling orphans are childhood friends: one turns his misfortune into an opportunity to help others, while the other is unable to rise above his sad beginning and turns to crime.
Murli, the good orphan (Vivek Mushran) now runs an orphanage himself, while Ram Jaane (played by Shahrukh Khan, and so named because when he asks a priest what his name is, the priest replies ’’God knows!’’ ’’Ram Jaane!’’ works for an evil crime lord.
Juhi Chawla is Bela, the sweet girl who is loved by both men, but who only has eyes for Murli.
Shahrukh Khan the King of Bollywood is an engaging, riveting, charismatic actor who is unfortunately prone to unprovoked fits of atrocious overracting.
Ram Jaane is a case in point.
Although he has moments of sheer brilliance in this film (his reading of his goodbye letter to Bella had me in tears) his consistent scenery chewing becomes a distraction in many scenes.
Shahrukh Khan is entirely capable of delivering subtle, thoughtful performances, and it’s hard to see why the director didn’t reign him in a bit here.
The character of Ram Jaane has so much potential; he is a tortured soul who longs for love and tries in his own twisted way to be loyal and virtuous, but simply lacks the moral equipment to make the right choices.
If played with a bit less hamming this could have been a great film.
Vivek Mushran and Juhi Chawla handle their characters admirably, however, and there are a trio of nice songs: the title song Ram Jaane, another little ditty called Chori Chori that has Juhi and Shahrukh dancing in the fields of Ram Jaane’s imagination, and a manic dance number called Pump up the Banghra that’s loads of fun.
This movie has its moments, but overall fails to live up to its potential.
I think that SRK has mixed up a lot of Cagney with a bit of Amitabh Bachchan’s simpleton in Don (the chewing thing).
Though I sincerely respect him, his overacting is truly dreadful, one of the worse performances of his career, but the rest of the cast, though less excessive, is not this wonderful either.
The film is replete with a series of nerve-raking songs that never end, when I saw SRK and Juhi on a boat near a sunny desert island, it was really too much!!
Moreover it seems to last forever! The first half hour is tolerable, and has a very nice action scene in a bar.
If you wondered where Farah Khan got the great idea of SRK sliding on his knees between the legs of a villain in Main Hoon Na, that’s where she got it, and it works damn well.
But apart from that there is not much to save.
A pity to remake an overall good US film into a dreadful Bollywood flick, nevertheless they have been luckier with other remakes such as Nayakan (Mani Ratnam) which is a remake of the Godfather and really worth watching.
I have seen Angels with Dirty Faces (James Cagney) before I saw Ram Jaane.
In fact, I was so impressed by ’’Angels’’ that I thought if I were to make a movie it would be a remake of ’’Angels’’ then I saw ’’Ram Jaane’’.
Cagney certainly is the best in the original.
Shahrukh Khan has played the James Cagney’s role and Vivek Mushran played the role Pat O’Brien played and Juhi Chawla revived role of Ann Sheridan.
Personally I feel that they never came any where closer to the original.
The ending, in the original is much better and underplayed compared to the loud ending in ’’Ram Jaane’’ that makes ’’Angels’’ much better movie.
If you have seen Ram Jaane you would find ’’Angels’’ much better movie, however if you have already seen the original
DO NOT WATCH RAM JAANE.