Friday, October 24, 2008

RAMCHAND PAKISTANI (2008)

The film depicts the story of a Hindu Dalit Pakistani boy & his father who crossed the border by mistake & caught by Indian military. The story then is nothing but the progression of their lives in Indian jail & struggling mother.
Although based on really sentimental & thought provoking real event occurred in 2002, the film fails to deliver the pulse of the subject with dumb screenplay & numb performances & improbable, caricature like characters. The main problem with the film is that it’s not moving or progressing any further after first & last fifteen minutes. Performances of all indo-pak actors are just below average including Nandita Das & this is the second reason why the movie seems tad boring. Not a single character of the film including the child makes any emotional impact to viewers in two third of the film; its only Rashid Farooqui in the role of father & older Ramchand who saved the grace in last 20 minutes. Pakistani Director Mehreen Jabbar has a very noble cause while making this film but the whole cause seems wasted with so many fault lines looming all over the film.
Strictly Avoidable.

Ratings- 3.9/10

1 comment:

abhishek said...

u know, long ago, when i was a little kid, i saw a movie on doordarshan (remember those good old days!!!) starring smita patil, n om puri.....the name was "ravan". it has a long lasting impact on me.the story is in a faded form in my memory. smita falling in love with the effigy of ravan, which is burnt in dussehra. then a truck driver comes, n says that he knows ravan, n takes her with her, exploits, n left her stranded. she becomes mad, n still waiting his ravan to arrive.....
those brown n yellow locales of rajasthan.....that awesome performance (though i didn understand anything about cimema then!!). one of the most forgotten movie, which i still cherish, though i never saw it again (neither been able to find that again)
when i started watching ramchand pakistani, i found strong similarities (a woman, waiting!!). nandita looks like smita patil, which gave me a strong attraction towards this movie. i thought "maybe, that ravan is back!!!" locales were also same......but unfortunately, its a waste, (my search is stiil on!!!). start n end grips u, but mid is totally lost. i agree with ur thoughts about this movie, n i feel sorry that i compared one of my childhood fav to this "movie from heart, but no brains applied"