Saumya B Verma, Ndtvmovies.com

Monday, July 14, 2008: (New Delhi):

There seems to be a lot of cross- border traffic from Pakistan to India this year, and we are talking films of course.

After the much acclaimed and successful Khuda Ke Liye, we have Ramchand Pakistani which premiered in India at Osian’s Cinefan Film Festival in Delhi.

This utterly human tale of a Hindu dalit family in Paksitan is a debut feature film by young Pakistani director Mehreen Jabbar, who has been directing shorts and teleserials before this.

The film makes a strong political statement on the irony of geographical borders yet endearingly narrates the story of a young boy Ramchand who accidentally crosses over to India. His father follows him, and both are imprisoned since quite obvioulsly all is never well between the two neighbouring countries.

While the film depicts the travials of the father son duo languishing in an Indian jail;not wihtout it’s characteristic wit and black humour, it also etches out an emotionally intense portrait of the lonley mother left behind waiting in the dark forever.

Making a film based on the real-life incidents of a Pakistani Hindu family, Mehreen Jabbar, the director said, ” We have tried making a very ‘real’ film that every one can relate to. All characters are so human that be it a man walking on the road, or an investment banker, all would be able to identify with the human element in the film.”

She added, “We want people to give it a chance as a simple film, and not bracket it as art house cinema, and then just keep it aside for the festival circuit only.”

Though the film is not without its share of stereotyping, it has some excellent performances by the young boy who plays Ramchand, and Nandita Das as the mother of Ramchand.

On being quizzed about her experience of working in the film, Nandita Das, emphasised the ‘enthusiasm’ of the whole team, that she thinks is often missing in Bollywood as the industry has slipped into a complacent phase.

” We worked as a family, and for me it made no differnce that I was working with a Paksitani team. Infact, since they speak the same language that I understand, it was easier for me to work in a Pakistani film , rather than shooting in Kerala or Tamil Nadu where I would have been at loss of words.” Nandita said.

Ramchand Pakistani comes to India after creating waves at The Tribecca and The Seattle Film Festivals.

Producer of the film Javed Jabbar along with his distributor , Percept Pictures , plans to release the film in India next month . He says, “Ramchand Pakistani is a ‘human document, it’s also an assertion of the Pakistani identity which I hope would not be seen as unidimensional anymore”

We hope so too Mr Jabbar and, well, the film is quite multidimensional indeed!