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Hey Ram - Breaking new ground

Topic started by cram (@ 206.103.12.102) on Fri Feb 18 04:07:04 EST 2000.
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

just back from watching Hey Ram. straightaway i can say it's a must-see. the first half is simply awesome, but the second doesn't quite live up to the initial impact. highlights are of course, IR's scintillating BGM (now we know what he was talking about when he said this would be a first in Indian cinema). and it's not just violins, he's used quite a bit of percussion, synthesiser, mesmerising flute...simply magnificent.
screenplay, dialogues, song picturisation, kamal's acting (especially in certain scenes like when Rani Mukherjee is raped and murdered), cinematography, sets, editing are all top notch. rest of the cast has also done a great job, with atul kulkarni coming out with flying colours.
kudos to Kamal for such a daring attempt. wish we had more like him.

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Responses:

• Old responses
  
• From: bb (@ desert-73.slip.uiuc.edu) on: Fri Feb 18 13:41:57 EST 2000
  
  let the excitement die down, then i will move it there. adhu varaikkum keep using this thread.
  
  
• From: Sam (@ 204.138.158.201) on: Fri Feb 18 13:48:52 EST 2000
  
  Forum hub-le ellam kuzhandai pasanga madhiri sandai pottukuranga Kamal perisa Rajini perisa-nnu. Evangal ellam padicha pasanga thane. Evangale eppadi erundha padigatha parama makkal enna pannuvanga? Thirutha mudiyadha jenmangal namma alluhal...
  
  
• From: Sabesan (@ ws-209-233-228-254.webvangroup.com) on: Fri Feb 18 14:04:37 EST 2000
  
  Forum hub-le atleast ore oru threadla thaaan Kamal perisa Rajini perisannu sandai.... anna enga endha thrad ponaaalum IR vs ARR, or IR vs MSV sandaai thaaan....
  
  
• From: neruppu (@ architect01.uhi.uc.edu) on: Fri Feb 18 14:58:40 EST 2000
  
  Aiyyo
  endha hub-la sandai adghigamnu oru sandai vandhidum pola irukkey!-))
  
  
• From: rags (@ ariel.sun.com) on: Fri Feb 18 19:38:02 EST 2000
  
  May all threads rest in peace!!:-))
  
  
• From: sk (@ harvest.ucar.edu) on: Fri Feb 18 20:07:46 EST 2000
  
  rags:
  
  konnutteenga! :-))
  
  Looks like Hey Ram has been very well made.
  This year Foreign Movie Oscar chance irukkaa?
  
  
• From: ravi k.s.ravichandran (@ pub-dial113.aclis.utah.edu) on: Sat Feb 19 00:10:37 EST 2000
  
  Folks:
  
  I haven't seen the movie yet. But I don't think we should care whether it would be considered for Oscar. As long as we can enjoy it, it is fine. The western views and background are very different. For them oscars are founded in the themese of movies like "chariots of fire", "sound of music", "Where Eagles Dare" "Ben-Hur", "star wars", "silence of the lambs" "titanic" in which the themes are based on concepts of adventure/music/war/psychotic/mind games/romance etc.
  
  I do not think the Oscar committe has the cultural background and wisdom to see the Hindu-muslim struggles and the passionate story of an individual lived through it. There are many Tamil movies (Moondram Pirai, Udhirippukkal, 16 vayathinilae, Nizhal Nijhamahirathu, Pudhiya Paravai, Sever Sundaram, Bhama Vijayam, Yethir Neechal) that I have enjoyed much much more than the best Oscar winning movies. My question is how would a westerner know the subtleties of emotions/characters/themes in these movies mentioned above ? Ofcourse a very objective committe memeber can watch for the technical quality of movie making, balance and complexity of theme and the accuracy of representation of emotions of characters involved... I think that's how non-english films score Oscar.
  
  If most Indians can see and appreciate the message of the movie, then IMO, it is thousand times worth than Oscar. Ofcourse, if it goes to that level, wonderful ! Nevertheless, I have watched Kamal for a long time and I feel he is quite a differnt, passionate and intense guy who wants to excel and do something different rather than follow a track. Only by guys like him, contribution to the excellence of Tamil cinema can be made. My admirations Kamal !
  
  
• From: chandy (@ ws025038.coba.siu.edu) on: Sat Feb 19 02:12:11 EST 2000
  
  Indiainfo has rated Hey Ram as just an average movie (okie-dokie).
  
  Kamal Hassan, as usual, has acted par excellence. But the direction is only passable. The first half of the film is slow and at times, vague. The controversial kisses and love making scenes are out of place and unnecessary, though the second half moves at a faster pace. Shah Rukh is controlled and plays his part effectively. Rani hardly gets a chance to act because she's busy kissing. Newcomer Vasundhara Das is good and relates well to her character.
  
  For review, see :
  http://movies.indiainfo.com/reviews/north/hindi/heyram.html#
  
  There is not even a mention of the music!!
  
  
  
• From: sk (@ 137.132.2.109) on: Sat Feb 19 07:30:15 EST 2000
  
  Can someone tell me what all this is about?...
  
  http://www.rediff.com/tamil/2000/feb/18news6.htm
  
  
• From: Venkatesh (@ ww2.ssbcd.co.om) on: Sat Feb 19 08:17:18 EST 2000
  
  Can somebody explain about the song picturisation and situation for nEE pArtha and Isayil?
  
  
• From: Venkatesh (@ ww2.ssbcd.co.om) on: Sat Feb 19 08:17:51 EST 2000
  
  Can somebody explain about the song picturisation and situation for nEE pArtha and Isayil?
  
  
• From: Shankar (@ netcache31.mot.com) on: Sat Feb 19 08:28:08 EST 2000
  
  Saw Hey Ram...Excellent portrayal of the character saket ram by kamal. BGM and cinematography require special mention. Raja has grabbed the oppurtunity to show his virtuosity in WC.
  
  In some places the screenplay drags. That is, IMO, the only -ve thing about the movie.
  
  I'm sure the movie is gonna be a FLOP commercially (tho i wud be more than happy if it's successful, commercially ) The reasons are...
  
  1) Lots of surrealistic scenes, portraying the thought process of the protagonist which may not be appreciated by masses.
  2) Most of the characters speak either in their mother tongue or in english and the tamil pronunciation of shahrukh, saurabh shukla, vasundhara das, & atul kulkarni are not clear (though they sound very, very natural).
  3) When people see a, what they call, a "period" movie, they don't expect some hi-fi spl effects. Here the special effects are used pretty well (and in most of the scenes one won't know it's a spl effect), but in those surrealistic scenes, like, sriram abhyankar says, "andha pachchai sedikku thaNNi ooththi oothi vaLarthu....." and kamal visualises it as gandhi pouring gold coins and a cactus grows and morphs into a pakistan flag !!!!
  Ppl won't expect such scenes in a period movie.(though I would say it was a good way of showing how a character perceives an idea where kamal has excelled - Irrespective of whichever period one belongs to, the way humans think has been the same, right. It's just that now they've come up with those techniques to express those feelings )
  
  As a director he has shown some flashes of brilliance in some scenes. for one, When kamal sees blood in sharukh's head he cries "aparna " and then corrects himself "amjad"...
  
  The events and the sets are very authentic ( Lots of scenes are based on events described in Freedom at midnight.)
  
  IMO, it's a must see (and listen !!! )
  
  
• From: sam (@ ip11.toronto14.dialup.canada.psi.net) on: Sat Feb 19 08:29:30 EST 2000
  
  SK:
  
  The reviewer tried to do something different like Kamal Hassan. To summarize the his whole review (?) he gave the heading "Kamalin Satyasodhanaiki vetri" That speaks everything about the movie.
  
  
• From: sam (@ ip11.toronto14.dialup.canada.psi.net) on: Sat Feb 19 08:41:20 EST 2000
  
  Yet another review of Hey Ram:
  
  http://www.clicktickets.com/heyram.html
  
  
• From: kumar (@ bbndrel5.net.external.hp.com) on: Sat Feb 19 10:08:07 EST 2000
  
  WTF to BGM it was great! What ever i heard.
  Bangalore guys dont go to pallavi, They dont have DTS as they advertise. I couldnt hear any music at all!. Like during talkies they switched on and off the back speakers during songs!. Now I got to watch in good theatre for BGm. Liked this movie! But it does have many -ve points.
  
  
• From: neruppu (@ 98acafb5.ipt.aol.com) on: Sat Feb 19 10:30:11 EST 2000
  
  Dinamani review.
  htttp://www.dinmani.com/newsItems.asp?id=DNC20000218221907&title=%A3%B2U%F4&eTitle=Dinamani+Cinema+Page
  
  
• From: neruppu (@ 98acafb5.ipt.aol.com) on: Sat Feb 19 10:31:27 EST 2000
  
  sorry, hope this works:
  http://www.dinmani.com/newsheadlines.asp?page=c
  
  
• From: Madhan (@ 202.41.117.3) on: Sat Feb 19 11:23:28 EST 2000
  
  Hey Ram : a movie with lots of flashes of brilliance by Kamal as a director -
  1.Kamal grows up without a mother from the age of three - in one scene, he longingly touches his late mother's photograph and then caresses the map of India - symbolism Bharat Mata - it had a K Balachandar touch !
  2.The Maharaja of Sangli District is stopped on his way near a railway level crossing - the Maharaja mutters "With Independence, Sardar (Patel) has denied all of us Rajas our own freedom (indirectly refers to both India getting Independence and also Sardar Patel's dictum to all the princely states to merge with Independent United India.
  3.Usually in most middleclass households or groups, there will always be a kind of "abishtu" character, who would not be contributing anything to the family as such but the family just accepts him as such - there is one character in the film who appears during the Srirangam scenes (was it Srirangam or Mannaargudi?) -
  4.Meticulously researched and painstakingly filmed - while the performances are very intense without overacting, the BGM is just apt and subtleties are galore ! in fact, a major portion of the film has such riveting, engrossing performances by the starcast that even without the BGM the movie would have been powerful ! What I am trying to convey here is in movies like "Idhaythai Thirudaadhey" , acting leaves a lot to be desired and IR had to take charge despite the good direction - but in this film, IR must have faced a stiff challenge since the performances were so good that he had to come up with a score equally great and at the same time befitting the scenes ! anyway, I need to see it again for the BGM score
  5.Atul Kulkarni - guys this guy is potential Om Puri, Rajat Kapoor, Nasser stuff - he is from the National School of Drama and indian cinema badly needs actors of his calibre - the silence on his face, the twinkling , smiling eyes, and the occasional lifts of the eyebrows, man this guy is Oscar material!
  6.Shah Rukh Khan - shed his usual unberable histrionics and given a superbly underplayed role - no stammering of voices etc.
  on the flip side - second half becomes a bit dragging and the surprise element is missing - anyway, HR is a hit in Madurai dist ! any movie that is received well in that area has to be a hit - in film circles this is an indicator - and in Mumbai and Calcutta,the film is showing to packed houses, thanks to the Marathi starcast and the Bengal (Calcutta) connection - in Gujarat and Punjab, the anti-Gandhi sentiments in the film have pumped up people who are watching it in hordes and especially those affected by partition are urging everyone to watch the film ! so Kamal's gamble pays off well !!
  
  
• From: Madhan (@ 202.41.117.3) on: Sat Feb 19 11:41:07 EST 2000
  
  By the way, the film is supposed to show Kamal going to Banares (Varanasi) and shaving off his head to become a Sanyasi ! but in the version I saw, there is nothing like that, whereas the Rediff Site review speaks about this scene !!
  
  

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