'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, 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 neighbor-states poised on the brink
of war.
Monday, September 29, 2008 17:50 IST