Hey Ram- Eros International/B4U

Movie Review

"Hey Ram" is the account of the fictional character Saket Ram (Kamalhassan). (Since giving a detailed account of the major events in the film would spoil the experience, I will give a more general review.) The story spans only maybe a few years, if even that, but a lot happens in Saket's life during this time. The partition time of the 1940s is the backdrop for this saga about revenge, redemption, anger, and life.

A tremendous amount of research must have been done for this movie. The sets are all reflective of India in the 1940s, down to the clothes and cars. Not one thing has been overlooked. The performances are also excellent. Kamalhassan's Saket Ram goes through a broad range of emotions in this film and each one comes across convincingly. Among the star cameos are Hema Malini, Om Puri, Nasser, Rani Mukherjee, and Shah Rukh Khan. Shah Rukh Khan portrays Saket Ram's friend Amjad Ali Khan effectively. His character wears what I assume to be an Islamic headdress throughout the film, which helps to hide his big hair. Other great performances are Naserrudin Shah's portrayal of Mahatma Gandhi and Vasundhara Das's portrayal of Saket Ram's second wife. Atul Kulkarni's Shri Ram Abyankher was also of note, with his very serious, pessimistic attitude.

"Hey Ram" received an "A" (as in "adult") rating from the Central Board of Certification for its sex scenes and sometimes bloody violence. Even so, this film was still censored a bit. I thought that the first sex scene was done in a sensual way, but the second one was done in a rather silly manner. The sex scenes are only slightly explicit, showing kissing, and facial expressions, but more suggestive. It's not as if you are seeing pelvic thrusts or anything, but this film shouldn't be seen by children under 13 or 14.

An interesting technique which was used here was the use of black and white for the present, rather than the past. Some scenes, like the opening scene, take place in 1999, and those scenes are in black and white.

Some special effects were used in this film and they are quite good, but a somewhat unnecessary. While I thought that the bit of CGI preceding the song "Asa Ga Madan Ban" was okay, it just didn't seem important. This scene of special effects includes a typical Hindu swastika turning into the Nazi swastika. You would think that some people's attitudes of Nazism would be played up a little more than a picture of Hitler in the background of one scene, but it wasn't. The scene with Saket Ram shooting at a target in a computer generated background was pointless and the tornado at the end of this sequence made me roll my eyes. "Hey Ram" was a very good film, nonetheless.

Picture

The picture quality, overall, is very good. After a few Eros/B4U duds, the picture quality here is quite good. However, there are a few flaws. Black levels never quite reach full saturation. For example, the opening credits feature white text on a black background, but the background looks more like a dark blue than a true black. Also, other huge dark areas such as shadows display the same problem. Oftentimes, the whites are a little too white; sometimes, when we see bedsheets or Kamalhassan's white shirt, they look like they are glowing and detail in these places is lost. There are some specks, but this isn't a huge problem. Some edge enhancement is visible, but this is only in a few scenes and isn't too noticeable. The picture looks to be cropped to about 2.00:1 from the original 2.40:1. Color fidelity and sharpness is good and there are few compression artifacts. The layer change was quite noticeable on my player, but it may not be as visible on newer players. There are a few black and white scenes in this film and the quality of these scenes isn't too great. Detail is lacking and it is more of a "blue, black, and white" because of it being printed on color stock. The lack of detail could have been solved by using a better print, but the blue tinting to the b&w scenes is either due to an artistic choice or to it being printed on color stock.

Sound

This disc has a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack and it is quite good. There is no distortion and the surround channels are used effectively. An interesting thing to note about the sound is that it was all recorded live, which means no dubbing. When you consider this, this makes the sound even better because it is fairly easy to improperly record the sounds. The sound mixers and editors must be seasoned veterans. Illayaraja's superb score and songs come across smoothly and are well integrated into the track.

Menu/Extras

The menu is animated, with a simple fire theme. Nothing special here, and more creativity could have been put into the menu screens, but as the movie is three hours long, it is better that less space was dedicated to the menus. The typical song selection, scene selection, and play movie options are included as well as English subtitles. Another extra that was included was the gala for the music release. This is a pointless feature and is very boring because it is pretty much the main cast of the movie complimenting Kamalhassan.

Overall

"Hey Ram" is an excellent film complimented by fairly good video quality and very good audio quality. This is one movie you are sure to like if you are tired of the typical song/dance/romance fare. I highly recommend it.