Director: Mehreen Jabbar
Principal Cast: Nandita Das, Rashid Farooqui, Syed Fazal Hussain, Maria Wasti, Noman Ijaz, Navaid Jabbar
Screenwriter: Mohammad Ahmed
Producer: Javed Jabbar
Editors: Aseem Sinha, Mehreen Jabbar
Associate Producer: Mariam Mukaty
Director of Photography: Sofian Khan
Music: Debajyoti Mishra

The most haunting frame of Ramchand Pakistani may be its first. Over a black screen, the words appear: adapted from actual events. The world is full of mad facts, but among the maddest is that in 2002, as Indian and Pakistani troops massed against each other on the countries' border, an eight-year-old boy named Ramchand wandered over the invisible line separating his own side of the desert from that of India's and was taken prisoner. Going in search of Ramchand, his father followed him across and was captured as well. They were held in an overcrowded Indian jail for five years. In her first feature film, Mehreen Jabbar lays out the political contexts of Ramchand's situation with exceptional fluidity. Titles at the top establish the geopolitics, and the more localized issues are threaded through early scenes. Most salient of all is the fact that Ramchand's family is part of a Hindu tribe of untouchables, making them both suspect and powerless in Pakistan. Bollywood star Nandita Das thus proves doubly brave for taking the part of Ramchand's mother: Ramchand Pakistani isn't exactly a valentine to India. But the film does have a heart, paying heed to the characters crowding the jailhouse and shaping the child's universe within it. Playing the younger Ramchand, Syed Fazal Hussain proves one of those miracle discoveries-he's a real kid, all piss and vinegar and shaking vulnerabilities-and Jabbar does well to dwell on his face as much as she does. Special note must also go to cinematographer Sofian Khan, who shoots both the actors and the ravishing desert scenery with an elegant, wide-angled tenderness. The world is, after all, full of mad facts-but full of beauty, too.

American Express Insider Center: Enjoy a Filmmaker Personality Interview  with director Mehreen Jabbar and moderator Aseem Chhabra. April 24, 7:45 PM, at the American Express Insider Center, 27 Union Square West.

--Peter Scarlet

Mehreen Jabbar worked in advertising in Pakistan before receiving a certificate in film, television, and video from UCLA in 1993. She returned to Pakistan to direct and produce TV movies and drama series under the banner of TasVeer Productions. Her short films have played in festivals worldwide. She has won awards for Daughters of the Late Colonel and a four-part television show. Ramchand Pakistani is her first feature film. Mehreen has been a member of the National Board of Film Censors in Karachi, the KaraFilm Festival (Pakistan's only international film festival), and a founding member of WAR (War Against Rape). She currently resides in New York City.

This film has been an incredible journey in collaboration, between people as well as countries—, , and the . It is based on a real-life incident about a Pakistani Hindu father and son belonging to the 'untouchable' (Dalit) caste, who spent some years in an Indian jail, and the wife/mother who is left behind.

 

 

So what drew me to this story? For one, it was the simplicity of it: a family separated for no fault of their own and forcibly put into a situation where they have to deal with circumstances not of their making. With this simple story came layers upon layers of subtext—about relationships, discrimination, and the politics of the region—told not in a propagandist way but rather through the eyes of a child and a woman. Another is that I have always wanted to work with children because of the rawness and intelligence a good child actor can deliver. A lot of it has to do with being greatly moved and inspired by Iranian cinema and Mira Nair's Salaam Bombay. And finally, the challenge of shooting in 's Thar desert—an arid, underdeveloped region where the harshness of the conditions go hand-in-hand with the sheer magnificent beauty of the area and the resilience and strength of the people who live there.

 

 

The challenges, in fact, were several: the declining state of Pakistan's film industry and the resulting poor technical facilities, cinemas being broken down to make way for shopping centers, and finding investors interested in a project unlike the typically formulaic song-and-dance film. In that regard, my father, Javed Jabbar, who wrote the first draft of the story and produced the film, was instrumental in approaching friends and colleagues from diverse sectors to invite them to join our family in investing in the project. I am deeply grateful to all of them for their vision and belief in the film.

 

The film's team, cast and crew, was comprised of a mixture of close friends and associates from the industry. For most, Ramchand Pakistani is the first feature film they have worked on.