“Ramchand Pakistani” - A Pakistan Border Drama

The border territories between countries have seemed to become the most recent favourite places for shooting dramatic movies. They are places where people’s feelings are divided into two or more than two directions.
So “Ramchand Pakistani” is another border drama movie starring a popular and well appreciated Indian actress, called Nandita Das. The drama telling the story of a boy who will accidentally stays into India has the subtle role of touching the both countries’ people’s feelings and bringing them closer. The story within the movie has been inspired by a real-life incident.
Nandita Das is playing in “Ramchand Pakistani” the role of the boy’s mother. Although the main characters of the movie are from Pakistan’s minority Hindu community, the Indian actress’ appearance in “Ramchand Pakistani” is the first sign of trying to make things work better between the two countries. Nandita Das has been known for acting in un-conventional movies, so this recent movie, “Ramchand Pakistani”, won’t make any difference for her.
“The film talks about things common to both India and Pakistan — bureaucracy, prejudice. […] There are innumerable cases of people accidentally crossing the border and being jailed as spies.” – said Nandita Das, referring to the numerous cases when innocent people, mainly children, from both Pakistan and India have been sent to jail for many years after they have accidentally straying into each other’s country’s own territory. Eventually some of these persons are being used by the two countries for making peace gestures and are being released.
From the popular Indian actress’ point of view cinema would represent the perfect cultural bridge between the two countries, which have been fighting three wars one against another since their separation from 1947. “Films are important for knowing about culture. I think if we knew a bit more about each other, we would stop perceiving each other as enemies.” – said Nandita Das, who is a former jury member of the Cannes Film Festival.

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