Ramchand Pakistani

Infobox Film
name = Ramchand Pakistani


image_size =
caption = Movie poster for "Ramchand Pakistani"
director = Mehreen Jabbar
producer = Javed Jabbar
writer = Javed Jabbar
photography = Faisal Bukhari
lyrics = Anwar Maqsood
starring = Nandita Das, Syed Fazel Hussain, Maria Wasti, Noman Ijaz
music = Debatyoti Mishra
cinematography = Sofian Khan
editing = Aseem Sinha
released = October 2, 2008
runtime = 103 min
country = pak
language = Urdu
budget =
domestic gross =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 1095421
website = http://www.ramchandpakistani.com/

"Ramchand Pakistani" is a Pakistani Urdu film that tells a true story.

Recently Mehreen Jabbar, one of Pakistan’s outstanding young directorsFact|date=December 2007, who has directed and produced a number of highly acclaimed, award-winning TV serialsFact|date=December 2007 and plays, including New York Stories, Pehchaan, Kahaniyaan and Putli Ghar, completed her first directorial venture into big-screen cinema, called Ramchand Pakistani. The film is in Urdu but for international audiences it will be sub-titled in English and other foreign languages. Nandita plays Champa, a Pakistani Hindu woman who is left desolate when her young son and husband disappear one day from their village at the Pakistan-India border near Nagarparkar, in Tharparkar. Nandita Das is the only non-Pakistani actor in the large cast comprising well-known Pakistani TV and stage personalities including Rashid Farooqi, Noman Aijaz, Maria Wasti, Zhalay Sarhadi, Syed Fazal Ahmed, (who plays the title role) Farooq Pario, Shahood Alvi, Adarsh Ayaz, Salim Mairaj, Tipu, and Navaid Jabbar (no relation to the producer or director).

The film was released in Pakistan and India in September 2008. Screenplay by Mohammad Ahmed and written and produced by Javed Jabbar. The music director is Debajyoti Mishra, lyrics by Anwar Maqsood and the songs are sung by Shuba Mudgal and Shafqat Amanat Ali. The cinematographer is Sofian Khan, the associate producer is Mariam Mukaty, and the creative consultant is Sonia Rehman Qureshi.

Plot

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.

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 neighbor-states poised on the brink of war.

Cast

* Nandita Das as Champa
* Syed Fazel Hussain as Younger Ramchand
* Navaid Jabbar as Older Ramchand
* Rashid Farooqui as Shankar
* Maria Wasti as Kamla
* Nouman Ijaz as Abdullah
* Adnan Shah as Sharma
* Adarsh Ayaz as Moti
* Farooq Pario as Suresh
* Shahood Alvi as Asif Hussain
* Zhaley Sarhadi as Lakshmi
* Atif Badar as Lalu
* Saleem Mairaj as Vishesh
* Saif-e-Hasan as Murad
* Rao Saleem as Interrogator, Border Security Force, India
* Karim Bux Baloch as Baloch
* Master Yaqub as Baba Gul
* Hassan Niazi as Deepak
* Kazim Raza as Professor
* Muhammad Rafiq as Bengali
* Sajid Shah as Inspector, Border Security Force, India
* Iqbal Motilani as Maulvi
* Anis Chachar as Captain Saleem

External Links

* [http://www.ramchandpakistani.com/ Ramchand Pakistani] – Official Website
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* [http://dearcinema.com/interview-mehreen-jabbar-director-ramchand-pakistani/ DearCinema.com Interview: Director, Ramchand Pakistani]