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Jury chief feels bad about 'Hey Ram' miss
New Delhi, July 6

Chairman of the feature film jury for the 47th National Film Awards Gautam Ghose on Thursday said he personally felt that the film ''Hey Ram'' by Kamal Hasan deserved to win one of the major awards for 1999, which it did not.

The film, set in the tumultuous days of the partition, won the awards for best costumes for Sarika, best supporting actor for Atul Kulkarni and best special effects for Mantra.

Addressing a press conference at which the awards were announced here on Thursday afternoon, Ghose admitted there was no unanimity among the 16-jury members while deciding on some of the 37 categories in which awards were being given. These were voted upon and in the process, some good movies got voted out, he said.

''I personally feel that 'Hey Ram' should have got one of the major awards. There were some very good Bengali and Malayalam films also. 'Taal' also got many votes but no awards,'' the renowned Bengali film director said.

However, he said that this was a normal thing to happen when 16 jury members had to decide on so many categories. Several aspects had to be kept in mind. ''Overall, I think that the awards are quite balanced and have gone to the right people,'' he added.

Chairman of the non-feature film jury Jabbar Patel said it was unfortunate that the jury could not recommend awards in ten of the 22 categories, as the films were not up to the mark.

Responses:

• From: ayya (@ jrc-cache8.jaring.my) on: Fri Jul 7 06:07:38 EDT 2000
  
  it's really a big surprise as heyram didn't get the award. this clearly shows our ppl hasn't reach to intellectual status yet!!!
  
  
• From: Neels (@ ppp-203-197-9-155.bom.vsnl.net.in) on: Fri Jul 7 12:45:21 EDT 2000
  
  As for the awards, I think since the majority of the juries are from Hindi films, they will ensure that some crappy commercial Hindi films (that often get equated with 'Indian films') get awards. What else can you expect from the people that have gone ahead and instituted an Award (that they call India's answer to the Oscars) called International Indian film awards. Guess what? The movies in consideration are Hindi films, not Indian films. They never call it Hindi awards though!!!
  
  In this year's national awards, IMO the Best Art Direction award should have gone to Hey Ram and not Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, 80 percent of which was shot in a Rajasthan palace/fort and the rest in Vienna (and the director was trying to pass it off as Italy.. imagine showing Madras Central station and calling it OOty? Believe me, one Hindi film has done that)
  Every year, the stupid category (that IMO was created to please the Hindi wallas called 'Popular and Wholesome Entertainer' goes to candy floss Hindi romances of the Yash Chopras and Suraj Bharjatyas. Can you imagine a lousy film like Darr with mindless violence (a rip-off of Cape Fear) bagging an award in this wholsesome popular entertainemnt category?
  
  But this year's Sarfarosh was a decent entertainer and possibly deserves the award. Well, Hum Saath Saath Hain, yet another wedding video from the house of Barjatyas just about missed the boat!!!
  Cinematography should have gone to Hey Ram as well. Thirunavukkarasu had done an excellent job!
  
  I don't know which category Gautam Ghose was referring to when he lamented the fact that Hey Ram deserved some major awards.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• From: rk (@ palo11.pacific.net.sg) on: Sat Jul 8 02:40:44 EDT 2000
  
  But at least Hey Ram HAS 3 National awards.
  
  
• From: SAM 3:16 (@ proxy.sjc.netsetter.org) on: Mon Jul 10 08:41:01 EDT 2000
  
  i really feel sorry for kamal....
  these indians are hipocrits......
  how can they improve if they think
  the kissing part is too much.....
  time for indians to wake up....
  
  
• From: Mullamaari (@ wwwgate1.motorola.com) on: Mon Jul 10 14:38:15 EDT 2000
  
  Chairman of the jury has said one more thing also which you guys have missed to ready. Padaiyappa should have won atleast 10 national awards. Rajni would have won the best actor award for his intelligent performance in padaiyappa. Anyway since padaiyappa has nominated for oscar hopefully it will win few oscars next year. Rajni will probably will be a first indian actor to win the oscar. But he definitely deserves that. What you guys feel about my comment
  
  
• From: Viki (@ ) on: Tue Mar 5 04:31:17
  
  Toronto Film Festival
  
  Editor's Note: The following films by South Asians were shown in this year's Film Festival. Reviews are presented below.
  
  Reviews by Ramani Ramakrishnan and Atin Bhattacharya
  
  by Ramani Ramakrishnan
  
  I must admit that I was biased against Hey ! Ram before I saw it on screen. When I listened to all the hullabaloo surrounding Hey ! Ram I dismissed the movie at once believing that the director Kamal Haasan had done a disservice by providing ammunition to the Hindutva movement so as to justify the thuggery of the Hindu fanatical groups such as the Shiv Sena. An apologia movie I thought. How badly mistaken and misinformed I was! See, You can not believe everything you read in the papers and see on the telly. In the event of seeing the film during this year's Toronto Film Festival in September, my curiosity to meet Kamal Haasan and learn more about his thoughts on this film became acute (which was fulfilled by my interview with him, published in this issue). Here is my take on this movie.
  
  In a nutshell, Hey ! Ram deals with the events leading up to the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. In a systematic way, the film presents, in measured steps no less, the slow process undergone by a man as he is transformed from a simple government archeologist into the ogre that wants to murder Gandhi. Kamal Haasan, the director, calls this process a slow descent into madness.
  
  The story is eminently believable. We have mates and a club friend working in the ancient sites of northwest colonial India. It is 1946, a year before Independence or shall I use the 'P' word - the PARTITION. One of them is a South Indian Brahmin, Saket Ram (Kamal Haasan); another is a Tamil Muslim, Amjad Ali Khan (the matinee idol Shah Rukh Khan) and the trio is completed by a rich businessman, Lalwani, (Saurabh Shukla) who happens to speak Tamil too. The digging has to be stopped and Saket Ram pushes off to Calcutta to be united with his wife, Rani. Jinnah was in the ascendancy among the Muslims and the communal divide between the Hindus and Muslims was getting worse. The chief minister of Bengal, Shaheed Suhrawardy is aiding the Muslims' 'Direct Action Day,' on the day Saket Ram returns to Calcutta. It is utter mayhem as his taxi weaves through the rioting mobs to his house to meet with Rani (Aparna Sen). With the aid of the family tailor, a Muslim, a gang breaks into his apartment complex, rapes and kills Rani. One of the gang member shappens to be a homosexual and attempts to rape Saket Ram. In his mad fury, Saket Ram takes a gun and proceeds to shoot as many Muslims as possible after killing the tailor and his gang. His fury subsides only when he is confronted by a blind little Muslim girl clutching a Hindu icon. Even though this child did not see his actions, Saket Ram, for the rest of the movie is tormented by this vision of the little girl watching him. During this process he meets up with Shriram Abhiyankar (Atul Kulkarni), a staunch Hindutva member. Shriram inculcates his hatred for the invaders, including Muslims, into Saket Ram in a measured way. And Saket Ram, in his mad vengeance, finds Abhiyankar's diatribes appealing even though his upbringing finds such hatred repulsive, at least in the beginning. Of course, Abhiyankar is a wanted man for his views. Completely distraught, Saket Ram returns to the south and his family gets him married again, to Mythili (the newcomer Vasundra Das), hoping he would settle down. He is unable to consummate his marriage and he meets up with Abhiyankar again. The slow process of wanting to eliminate the man supposedly responsible for this sad state of the Hindus in India begins in earnest under Abhiyankar and the benefactor, the Maharaja. Of course that man is Mohandas K. Gandhi. This Gandhi hatred continued for many years ( Gandhi bashing was the norm in our family) even after his assassination. His training gets solidified when they meet up with Lalwani in a state of penury, as he is forced to flee Pakistan. Kamal Haasan portrays this reclusive man impeccably. When Abhiyankar, chosen to kill Gandhi, dies tragically, but requests Saket Ram to take on his role, the transformation is complete. A melodramatic, heart-wrenching scene of Saket Ram preparing himself for the grave task ahead, ensues. He obtains a sanyas mantra (a symbol of renounciation) and practises with a loaded rifle in a confluence of tornado engulfing the full screen. According to Haasan, this is a sexual release for the reclusive Saket Ram - violence as an orgy of the mind. Of course his plans in Delhi go awry. While looking for his lost gun, he meets up with his old pal, Amjad, and a long shooting scene erupts where the friends protect each other - an elaborate dialogue takes place where Amjad convinces Saket Ram that Hindus and Muslims can co-exist, a birth (actually Amjad's child) takes place and Amjad gets killed in the fight. When Saket Ram meets Gandhi, so ably portrayed by Naseeruddin Shah, his transformation back into the aged Saket Ram is complete. The film ends with the old Saket Ram dying in Chennai in 1999 and the family being saved by a Muslim police officer during the Hindu-Muslim riots.
  
  With Hey ! Ram, Kamal Haasan, the director, scriptwriter and the lead actor (Saket Ram) has turned the whole story of Partition on its head. He has faced many of the difficult questions head on. The movie does not take sides. Neither the Hindutva Movement nor the opposition can take refuge in this film and use it for its propaganda. It is a simple story of a decent man, caught up in history's shackles, reacting to it and making judgments on the fly. How mad events can make simple folks into murderers! Only a handful of movies have dared to talk about the Partition and Hey ! Ram will be the one that will be remembered for a long time. It is a good movie with controlled acting by most of the actors. The cinematography, in particular, the attention to details for period pieces (a rarity in most Bollywood films), is excellent. Some of the scenes are too elaborate and melodrama charged. I found the fight scene in Delhi with the elaborate dialogue between Saket Ram and Amjad Ali too syrupy and long - kept on saying, come to the point damn it. On reflection, that scene reminded me of the Kurukshetra scene and the dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna that lasts over 700 verses. A great effort by Kamal Haasan to resolve the Hindu-Muslim divide through this movie and in that process, to also give an avenue for catharsis for the Hindu masses. One hopes that the true meaning of this wonderful film percolates down to that great populace of a divided nation.
  
  
  
  

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