A gift on Eid
Movie Name: Ramchand Pakistani
Directed by : Mehreen Jabbar
Cast: Nandita Das, Rashid Farooqui, Fazal Hussain
Showing at: City Pride Satara Road, INOX
Seven-year-old Ramchand crosses the border, from Pakistan to India, without knowing that his straying steps are taking him to a place from where there is no return. Both the boy and his father, who runs after him, are arrested. Ramchand Pakistani, based on a true story, tells it like it is, without embroidery or excess.
And that is debutant director Mehreen Jabbar's film's real strength. The village in which Ramchand (Syed Fazal Hussain) lives with his father Shankar (Rashid Farooqui) and mother Champa (Nandita Das) is all mud huts and abject poverty. Being Hindu and Dalit is a double burden: They are treated as outcasts in their own country, as well as the one that lies across the border, separated by a small strip of sand.
The lady officer in the Indian camp which houses prisoners like Ramchand epitomises the divide beautifully: She is willing to teach him what she can, but he is not allowed to touch her utensils because he is achhoot. Her change of heart is one of the high points of the film. So is Syed Fazal Hussain's affecting, natural performance as Ramchand? Child actors in Hindi cinema can learn a thing or two from their counterparts in Pakistan.
What happens with Ramchand and Shankar is not just the story of that father and son, but of countless ordinary individuals from both countries, who become victims of politics and animosity.
The film was meant to be a simultaneous release in both countries, but it opened in Pakistan a couple of months earlier. It's good timing, regardless: A good Eid present, as well as a pointer on Mahatma Gandhi's birthday, towards peace and goodwill between countries which have been struggling these past decades to reach accommodation.
Well worth your time.

... contd.