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another raja movie for oscars...

Topic started by prakash (@ 193.113.185.165) on Sun Nov 12 12:49:38 EST 2000.
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

Another movie with music by raja goes for the oscars!
Heyram is the indian movie for foriegn film category.other tamil movies thta were considered were barathy,sethu and ! kushi.

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Responses:

• Old responses
  
• From: Yar Yar YarAvar Yaro... (@ 216.190.255.35) on: Tue Nov 14 14:42:54 EST 2000
  
  a storyless - screen play less - direction less
  movie ,
  aka...non-commercical movie..
  
  
  tight script (lol) --- he had only tight grip on female coartists, hey ram is another name for the fable "kings new dress"
  
  what is shown in Hey Ram is more realistic...
  so anjali is not real, it is a fiction.. there are no artistic childen in the world who suffer,
  
  ayooo..thangalada swami.
  
  
  
  
• From: Yar Yar YarAvar Yaro... (@ 216.190.255.35) on: Tue Nov 14 15:07:49 EST 2000
  
  very tight screen play example:
  
  y.g.mahedran comes in the movie suddenly? why...and where did he vanish after smoking.
  
  
  btw:it seems oscar is not given for stories based on ghosts etc , that why 6th sense was not given...
  
  though not a ghostly movies 100%, Hey ram manages to qualify very much under this category.
  :)
  
  
• From: hari (@ 129.116.226.162) on: Tue Nov 14 15:12:26 EST 2000
  
  I do feel hey ram suffered a lot from the censor board ( in terams of flow...) , and i dont know if the version screened at the festivals is the pre-censored one or the one we all saw. I believe that the overall flow would have been much better if not for the censors forcing kamal to make changes deviating from the original script... this might affect a jury's perception of Kamal's direction...
  
  hari
  
  
• From: Shankar T (@ 206.222.96.195) on: Tue Nov 14 15:16:25 EST 2000
  
  kk & Kiru,
  I realize that now, sorry guys (I got a little too defensive after following the other threads).
  I felt that these needless graphics which were in the movie spoilt the flow. Quality of the graphics wasn't good either (Kamal target practice sequence...). Even though we should appreciate Kamal for trying out live voice recording, we can see that it wasn't perfect (lets see how well he does it in Alavandhan). I am sure these things would look bad to the western critics.
  The songs blended well (except for the ramaranalum and to an extent the lavani) and that is good. We desis have learnt to see the songs as a seperate entity and enjoy them but not the western folks. Going by the Oscar rules page, they do give much importance to the songs blending in the movie i.e the lyrics and mood of the music ( I would say songs are a major drawback for any desi movie that makes it to the Oscars).
  IMO, the bad graphics and poor sound are definitely going to show the movie in bad light and make it that much tougher to get a nomination.
  
  Trend,
  "Can Kamal do 1% of what Robert DeNiro does?"
  was a little too much. If what Kamal has done doesn't constitute 1% what DeNiro does, then there is a GOD and his name must be Robert DeNiro.
  
  
  kk & kiru, Once again sorry about my earlier post.
  
  Shankar
  
  
• From: Karthik (@ 129.188.33.221) on: Tue Nov 14 15:18:13 EST 2000
  
  I happened to see Anjali recently on DVD. Pretty decent movie. But Oscar worthy? Definitely not. The kids in the apartment complex were extremely loud and irritating. And the "kilai kathai", with two lovers was unnecessary, to say the least. Add Prabhu to the mix and we have a movie that barely rises above the compulsions of commercial Tamil cinema. If we edit out all these frivoulous portions, do you think it would be a taut movie that would be Oscar worthy? Personally, I dont.
  

  
  Now Hey Ram, on the other hand was, at first appearance a movie that meandered a lot. When you do something for the first time, you tend to jam all your ideas into it, even if they are irrelevant. Great directors are the ones that save their good but irrelevant ideas for later. They are the ones that are willing to take advice from others, and (I'm quoting Manoj Shyamalan here) they should be willing to sacrifice even their most favourite scene if it sticks out even a little bit in the movie. It must have been even more difficult for Kamal because he acted in the movie too.
  
  

  
  That said, I would say Hey Ram is a movie with enormous potential. With extremely good cinematography, an attention grabbing central theme, and outstanding music - if the movie is reedited by someone not connected to Kamal, I am positive we could come up with a good 90 to 120 minute drama, that might go down well with audiences here.
  
  My 5 cents...

  
  
• From: really? (@ 216.34.244.18) on: Tue Nov 14 15:18:31 EST 2000
  
  "Maybe we are used to very cinematic/dramatic scripts."
  
  Read pre-digested fluff! Point very well made!
  
  Mollaga bajji has more readily/easily preceivable qualities than quantum mechanics. Now who deserves a Nobel - einstein or the inventor of mb?
  
  Trend - just go to any theater screening anything other than armageddon, little nicky and the likes. You can get your konar notes there. Easier still - try renting some good Malayalam movies. "Guru" mentioned in this thread is a good start - it shames the work of many of our much touted whiz kids.
  
  A viewer is not a mere mailbox to stuff messages into. Hey Ram is a rare movie that recognizes this.
  
  
• From: Trend (@ 216.68.113.227) on: Tue Nov 14 15:24:11 EST 2000
  
  hari,
  
  If not for the censors it would have become a soft porn movie.
  
  He should stick to acting.If he wants to direct then he should get hold of someone like Sandhana Bharathi who will play second fiddle to him and can polish what he does.
  
  I think he didn't have a taut storyline in the first place.His inexperience away from the camera was evident.
  
  
• From: Gokul (@ 192.190.51.14) on: Tue Nov 14 15:29:21 EST 2000
  
  Fan,
  
  I am attempting to pinpoint the story/message.Pls Correct me if I err.
  
  It brings out the emotionally charged atmosphere of the 40s. Gandhis assasination by godse could have been just a coincidence. There were other Godses who were waiting to assasinate him for various reasons. Saketh ram's realization and transformation is the story.
  
  Many such Sakeths did not attempt but would have gladly assasinated Gandhi given a chance. Saketh ram is a comman man, who does not care about freedom struggle (he works gladly for the british govt, sings and makes merry with the brit bosses). He is driven to assasinate Gandhi purely for personal reasons. The attempt directly results from the loss of his wife, rather than from conflicting idealogy (Saketh doesnt seem to have one).
  
  The movie succeeds in showing that history needs to be looked at not only repeatedly, but from a variety of levels.
  
  The so-called "hot scenes" blend with the movie, they do not stick out. Hey Ram got undue negative publicity because of the so called non-existent hot scenes.
  
  Finally, Kamal as a filmmaker, did a splendid job in showing all this with a balanced subtlety (I wish it were still subtler though.)
  
  PS: IR's wagnerian piece has captured the essence of the tumultous mood of the film.
  
  
• From: Karthik (@ 129.188.33.221) on: Tue Nov 14 15:30:02 EST 2000
  
  Soft porn? I think all the (so called) steamy content in Hey Ram pales in comparison to what we see in the day to day Hindi fare. It was hyped, just like other parts of the movie were.
  
  
• From: Trend (@ 216.68.113.227) on: Tue Nov 14 15:34:24 EST 2000
  
  really?,
  
  I haven't seen Armageddon,Little nicky etc.Looks like you had some experience of what you shouldn't do after seeing these films.
  
  I have seen some good Malayalam movies.Why do you want to go to Mallu films when we have better movies in Tamil?Movies made by Mahendran are any day better than Mallu movies.
  
  Anjali had more realistic characters though it was conceived imaginatively without any relation to any happened incident.The way MR explored the dimensions of each character inthe movie was wonderful.
  
  
• From: fan (@ 216.190.255.35) on: Tue Nov 14 15:40:32 EST 2000
  
  gokul,
  
  I understand the base theme, imho:but it was not told clear, for example:
  like why does he cut his holy thread ? what weight it adds to the movie.
  
  my versoin of story:
  kamals comes and goes (in various, one with a iyengar getup), smooches few chicks, takes a gun and wanders around, cries at times, uses few iyengar marriage scenes..slokaas
  finally cuts "poonal",
  prepares to kill, meets gandhi and tells the world gandhi is a nice person (every true indian knows this)
  
  frankly as a whole...nothing is clear, he concentrated too much on other things, messed up the screen play.
  this is a sheer egoist movie, he taught everyone will accept what ever he tells, but failed.
  Kamal is capable of much better screen play.
  
  
  
  
• From: Trend (@ 216.68.113.227) on: Tue Nov 14 16:17:04 EST 2000
  
  Karthik,
  
  Why do you want to compare "Hey Ram" with day-to-day Hindi movies?those movies are not worth talking abt at all.
  
  Barring Muthuraman,Jaishankar Tamil movies it would qualify as the most provacative steamy encounters' movie.
  
  
• From: Karthik (@ 136.182.2.225) on: Tue Nov 14 16:23:13 EST 2000
  
  Yeah? Did you see the "mainstream" Kushi? Tell me, was there any exposure at all in Hey Ram? The scenes were sensuous at most. Definitely not "mugam sulikka vaikkum" types.. There were flaws in the movie alright, but too much steamy content was definitely not one of them.
  
  
• From: fan (@ 216.190.255.35) on: Tue Nov 14 16:33:26 EST 2000
  
  karthick, steamy content is very subjective :)
  
  i am talking about the over all content,
  kamal made too much noise for it, as though it the movie of the century etc,
  finally it was a very bigh disappointed, I watched it 6 times now (yes , just to understand it),
  only the last 15mins was some what interesting, he need have wasted about 3hrs+ to tell the last 15mins.
  
  rbf is a finanaical insitution that offers loans.
  many middle class "madrasis" have account there.
  I heard a kisu kisu: People relate RBF diwal and heyram failure, poor RBF a/c holders.
  
  
  
• From: SV (@ 63.80.83.47) on: Tue Nov 14 17:18:08 EST 2000
  
  The only problem with Hey!Ram was...it had almost all the Indian languages. Northies thought its a tamil movie(Though it was released in Hindi) and the southies thought otherwise. In fact the Telugu distributors were not willing to take the movie just for this reason. In the sense, they wanted everything to be in Telugu. For Some reason, Kamal thought it fit not to come up with sub titles for hindi dialogues(in the Tamil version) and vice versa. Apart from this only mistake, this was a well made out movie.
  
  Srikanth, regarding cutting the sacred thread, Heard Sanyasa Manthra ? Actually there was some belief in the earlier days, that when one goes sanyasi, they take out that sacred thread(Poonal) and not just that even the thread around the waist. In fact, even this stuff is shown.
  
  Y he shld go sanyasi, i dont think i have an exact answer to that. May be it was to portray, that he is denouncing everything in this world and the only thing that matters to him is Gandhi's assasination.
  
  Regarding YGM's role being so short...Would u ask this question, if it was done by some other actor who is not popular ? Moreover it is shown that YGM comes from some other town for his marriage. So kadhai nadakkum kalathil (rather sthalathil) avar illai.
  
  Regarding Kamal taking a gun...Initially he takes it in the spur of the moment, goes on a killing spree. Then he repents for it. But his belief that Gandhi is the reason for all the chaos is shown very well. AK being one solid reason. It is shown that Kamal reads a lot about the principles of such men and so forth.
  
  IR's music in this film was excellent.(Just to get back on track with TFM)
  
  SV
  
  
• From: really? (@ 216.34.244.103) on: Tue Nov 14 18:05:31 EST 2000
  
  Trend,
  
  "If not for the censors it would have become a soft porn movie"
  
  Now methinks you need to check out some soft porn as well
  
  "Movies made by Mahendran are any day better than Mallu movies. "
  
  Again, quite a sweeping statement-mirrors the logic you have so far applied to Hey Ram. As Karthik said, it is a flawed movie for sure but its leagues ahead of the WYSIWYG fare (anjali inclusive) you and fan seem to be so smitten with.
  
  Believe me- there is more than what meets the eye in Hey Ram if you unload all pre-conceived notions of what a movie should be.
  
  

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