Review of Play `Humare Ram’

By

S. Prabhakar                                                     

For the last over a year, I heard so much, everything good, about the stage play `Hamare Ram’ and last week I got the opportunity to catch it up in Delhi.   A die-hard moviegoer, it was a first-time experience that I have gone for a paid stage play.   As it turned out, it has been a fantastic experience of brilliant performances, production values, stage management, excellent pre-recorded background music and songs by the leading playback singers of Bollywood using modern technology in a live stage play, a very decent and appreciative crowd who have clapped every good dialogue, every emotional scene, and every brilliance on the stage.  

A great effort and a great service:

Writer, Producer and Actor (who also did the role of Lord Ram), Rahull R Bhuchar, deserves all the praise to have conceived the idea of presenting the important segments of Ramayan with the help of high production values and technology acceptable to the present generation without sacrificing the authenticity of the epic.  All these and above all the towering performance and star presence of Ashitosh Rana as Ravan have made the stage play a resounding success and talk of the town, with 394 live shows and still counting in different cities of India in the last 20 months.  

My first brush with stage plays:

My baptism into entertainment was through stage plays only, and I have very vivid and fond memories of stage plays during the 10-day Ramanavami celebrations in Vijayawada.   Huge pandals used to be put up every year to celebrate Ramanavami.   For all the 10 days in the late evening, they used to stage plays, mostly mythological from Ramayan, Mahabharat, Bhagavatam and a few social dramas also.   There were very popular stage artists who were experts in dialogue delivery and rendering `padyams’ by dozens.   As the stage plays used to go for hours together, the conversations between the characters used to be through `Padyams’, the longer the alaaps and louder the claps used to be.   By the turn of the 1970s some technology, colourful lighting, and multiple curtains were being used. Though not sure what technology they used at that time, but I remember the arrows used to move from one side of the stage to the other, and Ghatodgaj, along with the thrown, used to move from one side to the other side of the stage.     Once I left Vijayawada, I almost lost touch and interest in live plays/dramas.   After close to five decades, when I watched Hamare Ram, all my childhood memories of stage plays came back.  

 

 

 

 

 

What made the play Humare Ram a runaway hit:

Writing and presentation :  

Nothing about Ramayan is new and unknown to many of us.  Most of us might have read, seen in stage plays, movies, TV serials about Ramayan.   Attempting it again on such a large scale, making it interesting to all sections of the audience, is not an easy task.   Rahull R Bhuchar, the writer and producer, has picked up interesting and short segments of Ramayana and in 3 hours play, he covered most of the segments of Ramayana and presented them in such an engaging manner with the help of music, songs, and fascinating backdrops that the audience was spellbound for 3 hours without an interval.

Brilliant Acting:    

Ashutosh Rana: The biggest attraction of the play Humare Ram is undoubtedly Ashutosh Rana, who has essayed the role of Ravana brilliantly.  Ashutosh Rana is a National School of Drama product and a veteran of stage plays before he became a popular villain and character actor in Bollywood and many more languages of India.  Besides this, he is a writer, poet and great orator.  All these qualities have come to good use in giving a towering performance as Ravan.   His stage presence, dialogue delivery, and emotional acting all were of top ranking and deservedly got the loudest clapping throughout the play, though he played the negative role of Ravana.   His command over language and dialogue delivery, and lip syncing to the pre-recorded dialogues, is very impressive.

Comparing Ashutosh Rana with the legends of the Telugu Industry:

                         

Being a Telugu movie goer, mythological movies and plays are not new to me.  I might have seen more than 50 mythological movies.   As is known to all, N T Rama Rao has immortalised the mythological roles.   There are hardly any mythological roles which NTR has not essayed.    Apart from essaying the role of Lord Ram and Krishn many times and all other Gods he experimented with negative mythological characters of Ravana (in Sita Rama Kalyanam and Bhukailas) and Duryodhana in Dana Veera Sura Karna and was brilliant in these roles as well.   But for these two movies, in all other movies where NTR did Lord roles, it was legendary actor S V Ranga Rao who did the negative character of Ravana, Duryodhana, Keechaka etc.    Both NTR and SVR were over 6-footers, had huge screen presence, and were very famous for their dialogue delivery in chaste Telugu and Sanskrit.   Having seen both NTR and SVR in many mythological movies, I was never impressed by anyone, in any language, essaying mythological roles, including Arvind Trivedi in the most popular Ramanand Sagar’s TV serial Ramayan specially his not-so-strong voice and dialogue delivery.  

But after watching  Ashutosh Rana live in the play Humare Ram, I can put him next to NTR and SVR in every aspect of essaying a mythological character.   

Rahull R Bhuchar: 

Rahull R Bhuchar, apart from writing and producing the play, has played the all-important role of Lord Ram, probably the tallest Ram in height I have ever seen.   Rahull had a distinct disadvantage of his performance being compared with that of Arun Govil in TV serial Ramayan.    But it goes to the credit of Rahul that he interpreted the character of Lord Ram in his way and presented it without being influenced by any other actor, including Arun Govil, who essayed it.   He is calm, composed and looked dignified and like a real `Maryada Purushottam Ram’.   He showed all the shades of his character very well and held his ground in all the scenes he had with Ashitosh Rana, and received almost an equal number of claps and appreciation like Ashitosh Rana. 

The surprise package:   All other actors did a very decent job of their respective roles, but the actor who did the role of ‘Shurpanaka’ turned out to be the surprise package.   She provided an unexpected comic relief with her peculiar way of dialogue delivery and received thunderous applause.

Setting, lighting and Stage management:  

Very close to the brilliant acting comes the terrific stage setting, stage management, lighting and most importantly, the well-thought-out projections on LCD monitors on the stage, making a fantastic backdrop enhancing every scene.    Going by the spellbound effects in the aspect of the adoption of technology in stage plays, there is a sea change from what we were used to seeing on stage.   It is seen to be believed and very difficult to explain.    The scene of Sita going into the earth and Ravana severing his head and offering to Lord Shiva were managed very well on a live stage and looked very natural.  

I am deeply impressed by the back-end staff's efforts in changing the entire set in less than a minute between lights going off and coming on.   It includes moving out and moving in thrown, chairs, trees, Shiv Ling etc.   Scene after seen I am surprised how they escorted actors, especially Rana to backstage and moved so many things and put them at appropriate places and in some scenes put the actors on the throne and chairs etc all in 60 seconds.   These humongous efforts have helped in maintaining continuity and did let the audience become restless. 

The pre-production shooting, compilation of the scenes that were projected on the huge LCD monitors on the back and side of the stage, is very thoughtful.  The play would not have been so glossy and pleasing without these projections.

The background music, songs and sound engineering:

We Indians are so used to music in our movies and stage plays that we cannot survive without good music and songs.   Being conscious of the same, the producers have engaged the best in the business, Shankar Mahadevan, Sonu Nigam and Kailash Kher for pre-recorded songs under the music direction of Udbhav Ojha.   Besides songs, the background music is good and effective. 

Considering that all the dialogue was pre-recorded in the voices of the actors, including the characters of Ram and Ravana, and they did lip sync on the stage, the sound engineers did a great job in making sure that the sound did not get messed up anywhere in the entire over 3 hours stage play and it looked as if they were delivering the dialogue live. 

Costumes:

Costumes have been one of the special attractions of the play.   Great care has been taken in designing costumes of all characters specially Ravan.   Rich, colourful and attractive costumes of Ravan and his changing attire in every scene has made the character of Ravan stand out.  

Director: Last but not the least, the captain of the ship, director Gaurav Bhardwaj, did a great job in putting together a brilliant cast, extracting fabulous work from them and blending new technology.   Not sure which Ramayan written by which author was adopted,  he introduced an interesting episode of Ravan dreaming about Ram coming to him and having a conversation during the war, Ravana being invited by Ram to conduct Puja of Lord Shiv for which Ravan brings  Sita along and takes back as Ram cannot perform puja without wife accompanying him, and Shurpanaka husband being killed by Ravan and the episode of provoking Lakshman to cut her nose to avenge his brother Ravan.  

The Success Story:

With so many things going in favour of the Play, it does not come as a surprise to me that it is a stupendous success with fully sold-out 394 shows in all major cities of India in the last 20 months and going very strongly in India and very soon going to Broadway, the first Indian play to do so.   The high price tag, starting from Rs. 1700 and going up to as high as Rs. 9000, depending on the city, has not deterred the audience.   Not only have the audience, of all ages, all strata of society, middle class, rich and super rich,  come in large numbers, but they are completely involved, engrossed and cheered lustily every appreciable scene on the stage.    As Ashitosh remarked, we do not know how many kms Lord Ram travelled, but Humare Ram has travelled lakhs of kms in the length and breadth of India and is now slated to cross continents. 

Though I did not attend many plays, having stayed in Delhi for over four decades and know how vibrant the audis in FICCI Marg and Copernicus with stage plays and NSD have given many talented stars to the Hindi industry, including Sharuk Khan and Ashitosh Rana the central figure in this play.   But plays like Humare Ram and its stupendous success, will give a booster dose to such Plays adopting interesting segments of Ramayan, Mahabharat, Bhagavatam, and other  Hindu mythology.  This will be the best way to bring back our children and youth from Harry Potters, Avatars and Avengers and introduce our Hindu mythology, the superheros from them.  

I will give a 10/10 rating. Don’t miss at any cost.  

S. Prabhakar

12^th January, 2026