Ramchand Pakistani (15)
- Consumer Advice: Contains strong language
- Run time: 1 hour 45 mins
- Language: Urdu
- Genre: Drama
- Release date: 31st July 2009
- Starring: Nandita Das, Rashid Farooqui, Noman Ijaz
- Directed by: Mehreen Jabbar
- Official Website: www.ramchandpakistani.com
- Distributor: Mara Pictures
Plot Synopsis
‘Ramchand Pakistani’ is derived from a true story concerning the accidental crossing of the Pakistan-Indian border during a period (June 2002) of extreme war-like tension between the two countries by two members of a Pakistani Hindu family belonging to the 'untouchable' (Dalit) caste and the extraordinary consequences of this unintended action upon the lives of a woman a man and their son.
The singular theme of the film is how a child from Pakistan aged eight years 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 country i.e. India which is hostile to his own while on the other side of the border the wife-mother devastated by their sudden disappearance builds a new chapter of her life by her solitary struggle for sheer survival.
Belonging to one of the lowest castes in Hinduism (one of the “untouchables”) the family is also part of a small minority of Hindus in a country which is the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in which 97% of the people are Muslims. The boy and his father are held captive in India where in contrast to Pakistan the overwhelming majority of about 80% comprises of Hindus.
The film portrays the lives of a family that is at the bottom of a discriminatory religious ladder and an insensitive social system which is nevertheless tolerant inclusive and pluralist. The irony is compounded by the fact that such a family becomes hostage to the acrimonious political relationship between two neighbour-states poised on the brink of war.