Ramchand Pakistani: A Film that Begs to Differ

Aisha Sarwari reviews the new film by Mehreen Jabbar

When India makes a movie about Pakistan it’s about how bad the Pakistan Army is, and when Pakistan makes a movie about India it is about how bad Hindus are. Between Lollywood and Bollywood you have a mesh of equally shallow, intellectually famished products that have more song and dance or appeal to violence, than it has a story line.

Mehreen Jabbar has chiseled away the Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan straightjacket at the onset of this directorial masterpiece in Ramchand Pakistani. Pakistani cinema moves its way up to showcasing complicated topics palatable enough to be played when crisis after crisis hits the Pakistani political scene. It is difficult to imagine the treacherous paths directors such as Jabbar and recently Shoeb Mansoor in his film, Khuda Key Liye faced when seeing these films to completion.

Needless to say that Pakistani directors have a formidable challenge simply because the Pakistani cinema-going populus is not mature enough and also because it hasn’t apparently hit critical mass. Yet, with a star cast like Nandita Das and Maria Wasti, Ramchand Pakistani will follow Khuda Key Liay and make record sales at the box office in Pakistan and abroad.