Hey! Ram

After returning home from working on Mohenjo Daro’s sites, young archaeologist Saket Ram finds his Bengali wife raped and killed by Muslims during riots in pre-partition India. The man leaves Calcutta in despair and goes back to Tamil Nadu, to his orthodox Brahmin family where they arrange a marriage for him. Feelings of revenge grow in him. He considers Mahatma Gandhi’s approach of ahimsa (non-violence) the cause of his tragedy. He joins an anti-Gandhi group and seeks revenge.In the subtle psychological portrait of Saket Ram, Kamal Haasan makes it clear that the idea of atonement, even in the bloodiest possible way, is present in all of us. He allows his protagonist to make an epic journey from political innocent through rigid anti-Gandhi communalism to repentance and self realisation. It is interesting that Kamal Haasan has chosen Muslim actors for the role of Muslim heroes and Hindus for the Hindu characters. Only Mahatma Gandhi was played by the brilliant Muslim actor Naseeruddin Shah, and the director adds that Gandhi would undoubtedly have approved of being brought to life by a Muslim actor. Kamal Haasan even convinced Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson Tushar Gandhi to make an appearance in the film. Kamal Haasan succeeds in Hey! Ram in combining two primary aesthetics of Indian cinema, art and mainstream.