Hey Ram Dvd

Hey Ram is a 2000 Indian historical drama film written, directed and produced by Kamal Haasan, who also acted as the protagonist. It was simultaneously made in Tamil and Hindi languages. Shah Rukh Khan plays a Supporting Role, making his debut in Tamil cinema.

Plot

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The movie begins at present day with Saket Ram, an 89-year-old Hindu man at his death bed in Madras. He is being taken care of by his grandson Saket Ram Junior, a famous novelist who writes historical fiction, and their family doctor, Munawar. Ram Jr. explains how he grew up listening to his grandfather’s stories. He then narrates one of his grandfather’s strangest stories that he plans to use for his next novel. As Ram Jr. narrates the story, Ram is reminded of it.

The scene reverts to the 1940s, when Ram and his Pathan Muslim friend, Amjad Ali Khan are archaeologists working together under Mortimer Wheeler, in Mohenjo-daro in the Sindh province in what was then North-West India. Relations are good between the Indians and the English. Saket and Amjad do not approve of partition and the creation of Pakistan. Although many Indian Muslims plan to move to Pakistan, Amjad decides to stay in India as he believes it is his homeland and he does not wish to live under Sharia law.

After the archaeological site is shut down out of fear of riots, young Ram returns to Calcutta to be with his wife, Aparna. On his way home, he witnesses the riots and chaos over the issue of the formation of Pakistan and the call by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of modern Pakistan, for “Direct Action”. While out to get some food, Ram manages to save an innocent Sikh girl from the hands of a 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 revenge.

Outside his house, Ram runs into Shriram Abhyankar, a Thanjavur Marathi who is part of a Hindu nationalist group determined to fight the Muslims’ malice and persecution with similar brute force, and assassinate Mahatma Gandhi for what they perceive to be his treachery towards Hindu dominated India. Gandhi wants Hindus and Muslims to co-exist peacefully with a hope of winning over the hearts of the rioters through sheer self-piety, but Abhyankar and his fellow extremists have lost patience at what they deemed Gandhi’s stand to appease the Muslim League and their demand for Pakistan.

Back in his hometown of Thanjavur, Ram’s brother Bashyahm and sister Vasantha urge him to remarry. He is then married to the daughter of family friends, Mythili. While his wedding is being celebrated across the village, Ram tells his childhood friends Vedha and Yegham that he has no reason to be happy since the world’s biggest political divorce is going on with the separation of Pakistan in the north. During his first night, he learns that Mythili, like her family, are supporters of Gandhi and that the Mahatma will be visiting Calcutta a few days later on the anniversary of the bloody riots. Ram travels to Calcutta alone and learns that a Mr. Nair now lives at his old apartment. Nair gives him a goddess painting drawn by Aparna not long before her death. Later that night, Ram joins a mob that confronts Gandhi and Suhrawardy, the Chief Minister of Bengal, about the bloody riots. When questioned about whether they take full responsibility for the riots, both of them accept and ask for forgiveness. The mob forgives them, but Ram refuses to.

Although Ram remains aloof at first, he slowly falls in love with Mythili. However, on their honeymoon in Maharashtra, Ram and Mythili bump into a disguised Abhyankar, who introduces them to a dethroned Maharaja. During a hunting trip with Abhyankar and the Maharaja, Ram is reunited with his old Sindhi friend from Calcutta, Manohar Lalwani who lost his family and home in the riots. After seeing Lalwani’s misery, Ram realises he has still not gotten over Aparna’s murder. Under Abhyankar’s influence, Ram comes to the belief that Gandhi 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 the Maharaja and Abhyankar, are furious and plot to murder Gandhi. Ram unwittingly becomes a part of their militant organisation that plots to kill Gandhi. Due to a horse-riding accident, Abhyankar is left quadriplegic and has Ram swear that he will carry on his work, that of killing Gandhi.

Back in present day, Ram Senior’s situation worsens. Ram Junior tries to convince his father Mohan to accompany them to the hospital, but he is uninterested for some unknown reason. As a result, Ram Jr. and Munavar take him to the hospital but are stopped by the police since there are bomb blasts in Madras due to Hindu-Muslim communal riots. Ram asks “Even now?”. A soldier makes them hide in an underground shelter for their safety. As they try to stay silent to avoid being attacked by the mob, Ram reminisces about how he plotted to kill Gandhi many decades ago.

Back in newly independent India, Ram begins to prepare to assassinate Gandhi once he returns to Madras. A pregnant Mythili becomes worried as her husband grows more distant and invites her parents and in-laws over to cheer him up. However, Ram has made up his mind to kill Gandhi and leaves home for Varanasi, where he goes through a purification ritual. Then, he heads for Delhi and unknowingly stays at the same hotel as another fundamentalist planning to kill Gandhi, Nathuram Godse. When the police arrive to question Godse, a paranoid Ram hides his gun in a truck. Later on, Ram goes to the soda factory in Chandni Chowk where the truck was heading to.

In Chandni Chowk, Ram is reunited with Amjad, who takes him to the soda factory. It is revealed that many Muslims civilians, including Amjad’s wife Nafisa and their children, are hiding there out of fear of being attacked by Hindus during curfew. When it is discovered that Ram came there for a gun, the Muslims became suspicious that he might be out to kill them, attack him. A fight ensues that triggers a series of violent events in the area. While trying to escape both Hindu and Muslim mobs, Amjad finds out that Ram is in Delhi to assassinate Gandhi and he tries to convince his friend to not do it. He reveals that his father did not die of natural causes, but was murdered by a Hindu mob.

Amjad begs him, kneeling and asking forgiveness for Aparna’s death. He says he forgives Ram for his father’s. Then he asks Ram to shoot him and tells him that he will take Ram’s bullet if his death will grant both Hindus and Muslims peace. He says that he is willing to die if his death gets rid of the hatred that has turned Ram mad.

Just then, they are cornered by a Hindu mob who try to kill Amjad, but he is saved by Ram. Amjad is struck on the back of the head and Ram takes him back to the soda factory. Together, they then help protect the Muslims hiding in the soda factory until the authorities arrive to control the situation. Amjad is shot in the leg.

Amjad is fatally injured and is questioned by Officer Rao about the man who started the violence. He is asked about the fake name, Bhairav, that Ram used since he arrived at his hotel.

Before dying, Amjad lies that he has never seen that man before, and all he knows is his brother Ram who despite everything, saved his life. He dies holding his brother’s hand.

Ram then bumps into father-in-law and his friend who are there to meet Gandhi. He learns that his uncle and aunt have died after learning he has left. Gandhi requests to see Ram to invite him on his long walk to Pakistan after finding out he helped save innocent Muslims. Ram ultimately changes his mind about Gandhi after seeing that his teachings are all about love and non-violence. He decides against assassinating the leader, and attempts to confess the truth to him in order to beg for forgiveness. However, it is too late as Gandhi is eventually killed by Godse. Then on, Ram lives by Gandhian principles.

As the situation on the streets starts to cool down, Ram whispers his last words to his grandson and eventually dies. Before Ram Junior leaves with his grandfather’s body, he learns that the soldier’s name is Ibrahim and that he is a Muslim. During Ram’s funeral, Gandhi’s great-grandson Tushar comes and sees Ram Senior’s private room which is full of historical photos. Ram Junior hands over Gandhi’s footwear and spectacles which his late grandfather had previously collected from the place of the shootout and had treasured throughout his life.

Cast

Kamal Haasan as Saket Ram / Saketharaman
Shah Rukh Khan as Amjad Ali Khan
Naseeruddin Shah as Mahatma Gandhi
Hema Malini as Ambujam
Vasundhara Das as Mythili Saketharaman
Rani Mukerji as Aparna Saket Ram
Girish Karnad as Uppilli
Om Puri as Goel
Vikram Gokhale as Maharaja
Saurabh Shukla as Lalvani
Nassar as Ibrahim
Abbas as Munavar
Atul Kulkarni as Shriram Abhayankar
Sowcar Janaki as Mythili’s grandmother
Vaali as Bhashyam
Iravati Harshe as Nafisa
Gautam Kanthadai as Saket Ram Jr.
Nagamani Mahadevan as Vasantha
V. S. Raghavan as K. T. Chari
Delhi Ganesh as Chari
Gollapudi Maruti Rao as Govardhan
Y. G. Mahendran as Yagyam
Vaiyapuri as Vedha (Tamil version)
Arun Mehra as Vedha (Hindi version)
Ram Mohan as a refugee
Arun Bali as Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy
Shadaab Khan as Altaf Tailor
Yatin Karyekar as Qureshi
Manoj Pahwa as Jalal
Chandrahasan as Mohan Gandhiraman
Lewis Elbinger as Mortimer Wheeler
Tushar Gandhi as himself
Mohini Mathur as Hajra Begum
Madhuri Sanjeev as Bina Lalvani
Sharad Ponkshe as Nathuram Godse
Shubhangi Gokhale as Rani
K. S. Ramesh as an inspector at Marina Hotel
Umesh Sharma as Altaf’s mother
S. K. Ghosh as Chattopadhyay
Annapoorna as Mrs. Chattopadhyay
Anand as a doctor at Delhi hospital
Ambarish as a doctor at Delhi hospital
U. B. G. Menon as E. V. K. Nair
Bolai Sarkar as a drunkard in Calcutta
Nagaraja Bhagavathar as Jeganatha Iyengar
Shruti Haasan as Vallabhbhai Patel’s daughter
Taj Bansal as the blind girl of Belliaghatta
Bobby Bedi as Chotu Ram
Mohammed Ali as Amjad’s Father
Arun Patekar as Sardar Vallabhai Patel
Yunus as Abul Kalam Azad
Raj Patra as Jawaharlal Nehru
Savar as Lord Mountbatten
Amitabh Srivastava as Babu Rajendra Prasad
Gilles as Henri Cartier Bresson
Supritha as Abha Ben
Rashmi as Manu Ben
Rahul as Gopal Godse
Jayasimha as Ramachandra Badge
Vikram as Vishnu Narayana Apte
Sirish Purohit as Vishnu Karkare
Aravind Akash as Sankar Kishthaya
Vivek as Madanlal Pahwa
Shabbir Ahmed as Aparna’s attacker
A. C. Murali as Parthasarathy
Nikita Palekar as Pushpa Iyengar
Sanjana Khanna as Amjad’s daughter