Directed by Mehreen Jabbar

Produced by Javed Jabbar

Written by Javed Jabbar

Starring Nandita Das, Syed Fazel Hussain, Maria Wasti, Noman Ijaz

Music by Debatyoti Mishra

Running time 103 min

Language Urdu

A scene from the movie Ramchand Pakistani

Word of caution: Read ahead only if you are interested in serious art movies. Now, assuming you are a serious art movie lover, this isn’t a serious art movie but treads into that category. Mehreen Jabbar is one of the upcoming directors on the Pakistani movie circuit, though you might say she has managed to create ripples in the entire subcontinent with her venture. The story of a young innocent seven year old boy as he comes in terms with life the hard way and how a father pays dearly for being a father. The movie takes its basic storyline from a true story of accidental crossing over between the borders of India and Pakistan during the heightened escalation of war between these rivals near mid 2002. As the tagline goes, this story talks about how three lives are affected by this one crossing.

Ramchand Pakistani belongs to a family of Pakistani Hindu dalits (untouchables) who form the lowest spectrum of the society. In one of his fits of anger, he goes off on a long walk, unfortunately which takes him across the border. His father notices him and rushes to stop his son but is also captured and being suspected of being spies sent across to the Indian Army headquarters. The main focus of the film is how a young child learns to cope with the trauma of forced separation from his mother while being held prisoner, along with his father in the jail of a hostile country, while on the other side of the border, the mother (Nandita Das), devastated by their sudden disappearance builds a new chapter of her life, by her solitary struggle for sheer survival, while she does still hold out hope that they would return. Surrounding this storyline, a number of issues are brought into light of how being lowly in an insensitive social system has its disadvantages and yet there is hope, there is tolerance and the society still is wholesome, that humanity can rise across caste, creed and nationality.

Ramchand is treated like everyone’s own kid in the Indian prison and even has a female warden to oversee his education and personal care even though she hates untouchables. Ramchand’s life in jail is really bad. He goes through the various stages of adolescence, protected by his father at every step. The portrayal of the father has been played with great panache, a man in soup of none of his doing and how he suffers at every step because he continues to perform his duty as a father at every step of his life.

The director manages to bring out numerous such social issues through well scripted storyline. The songs in the movie require an acquired taste of rural folklore but gel well with the movement of the story. A truly sterling performance by the main cast includes few famous Pakistani theatre and TV celebrities.

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