Ramchand Pakistani set to create history

The Pak film, shot in India and Pakistan, will be the first to premiere simultaneously in the two countries

NEW DELHI: A Pakistani film about a boy who inadvertently strays into Indian territory will be the first ever to premiere simultaneously in both countries whose ties are often strained, the film’s Pakistani producer said.

Ramchand Pakistani, inspired by a real-life incident, examines the emotional turmoil of an eight-year-old boy and his father after they cross into India and are jailed, while the mother in Pakistan is left waiting to contemplate their fate.

The film’s release in India and Pakistan on August 1 will be a rare event considering political rivalry has limited the cultural interaction between the two nations. “It is a very rare example of constructive creative collaboration between both countries,” producer Javed Jabbar said at a press conference on Sunday, a day after the film was screened at the Osian’s Cinefan film festival in New Delhi.

Jabbar, whose daughter Mehreen directed Ramchand Pakistani, said Pakistan allowed filming to take place close to sensitive border areas in southern Sindh province while India let the crew visit a jail in western Gujarat state to maintain “visual and narrative authenticity”.

Indian actress Nandita Das, known for her roles in bold, unconventional productions, plays the mother in the film whose main characters are from Pakistan’s minority Hindu community.

When Indian troops find the boy Ramchand and his father who comes looking for him, they suspect them of being spies. Set partly in 2002 when tensions between the South Asian neighbours brought them close to war, the pair end up in a grim jail where Ramchand spends his boyhood. His mother, meanwhile, has no way of knowing where her son and husband have gone.

Instances of innocent people, from India and Pakistan, being jailed for years after accidentally straying into each other’s territory are common. Such prisoners are released by the two countries from time to time as a peace gesture.

But Ramchand Pakistani, made at a budget of Rs3.6 core, is a story about human emotions and didn’t set out to explore a solution to the bilateral problem, producer Jabbar said. “Inevitably, we knew that there hopefully would be a positive impact, but it’s not deliberately conceived as a political film,” he explained.

Pakistan banned Indian films after going to war with its neighbour in 1965 but over the past few years, authorities have been allowing some Bollywood films to show in cinemas. In April 2008, for the first time in years, a Pakistani film Khuda Kay Liye opened in Indian cinemas.

With Ramchand Pakistani about to follow suit, Jabbar believes it is a sign the Pakistani film industry may soon shed its reputation of making low-budget imitations of Bollywood fare. “Ramchand Pakistani represents the emergence of a new Pakistani cinema after several years of decline,” he said.