Pakistani film big success at top film festival

NEW YORK- Loud and sustained applause rang out in a packed downtown cinema house on Monday night at the end of Pakistan’s first-ever film featured in a major international festival film.
Mehreen Jabbar’s poignant “Ramchand Pakistani” drew appreciative comments from knowledgeable New York movie-goers and critics. It is among 121 feature films and 79 short films representing 41 different countries being screened in the Tribeca Film Festival.
The movie, starring Indian actress Nandita Das, is a real-life story of an eight-year-old Pakistani Hindu boy who strays across the Indo-Pakistan border and is captured by Indian police. His father, who goes looking for him, is also arrested and the two spend years in jail after being labelled as spies.
Mehreen’s father Javed Jabbar wrote the story of the film, which he produced.
Speaking to a battery of print and electronic media reporters at the film’s premier, Javed Jabbar said at this historic moment as a Pakistani he felt a “mixture of humility and pride.” And an elated Mehreen, the director, said, “It’s a great feeling...I’m delighted.”
Javed Jabbar went on to say that through “Ramchand Pakistani”, he hopes to bring Pakistan and India closer by showcasing the emotional turmoil that ordinary people on both sides of the border experience because of the strained political relations.
Nandita Das plays Champa, the woman whose eight-year-old son Ramchand and husband disappear from their village near Nagarparkar, located along the border with India.
The film stars Syed Fazal Hussain in the title role. Pakistani actors in the cast include Rashid Farooqi, Noman Ijaz, Maria Wasti, Shahood Alvi, Tipu, Adarsh Ayaz and Saleem Mairaj.
The film was shot in Nagarparkar and Islamkot, close to the Indian border. The photography is simply stunning.