The first thing that struck me about the motion picture was its stark realism and crisp camera work, which hovered over a bucketful of organic new-age anxiety. It reminded me of an early Vittorio De Sica tour de force. There was no overacting, no heroics, no redemption, no scenes of vandalism, no love song at the slightest provocation or freshly minted terror on the part of the suburban bully. It was an exceptionally enlivening piece of work that embraced and extended the mutual inheritance of the photo-journalist and the visual artist. What I saw was the riveting tapestry of human emotion. If there is a lesson to be learned from this film, it is that the bureaucracy on both sides of the border stretches itself to absurd lengths to enact a travesty of justice.
The camaraderie that existed between Shankar (Rasheed Farooqi) and his son Ramchand (Syed Fazal Hussain) and the Muslim and Hindu prisoners in the jail was most fetching. All appeared to be part of the same porcine family, frozen in time, who heralded each new day with the same sense of hopelessness and helplessness. The development of some of the other relationships had an inevitability that was natural and expected. Like the unspoken affection between the young trespasser and the female Indian sergeant (Maria Wasti) who used every opportunity to remind the boy that she was a high caste Hindu while he was an untouchable, forbidden to handle the crockery she used. Or the unspoken romance between the wife-who-was-left-behind (Das) and a member of the Kohli tribe, which was nipped in the bud when another member of the tribe prevailed upon the man to uphold the honour of the clan.
All members of the cast played their role extremely well. I was most impressed with Farooqi, who I understand is a teacher in real life and the perky insouciance of Hussain, who came of age in the prison and refused to be cowed down by the jailers. The prison staff displayed the usual mixture of boredom and exasperation while indulging in their duties. Except for the odd political comment and the initial display of third degree tactics to make Shankar confess to something he wasn’t, the staff on the whole behaved quite civilly. It is no surprise that this extraordinary film written and produced by Javed Jabbar and directed by his daughter Mehreen bagged so many prizes and awards. Hopefully, they will now tackle the plight of those unfortunate Indian and Pakistani fishermen.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 10th, 2012.
COMMENTS (10)
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@MovieBuff
Well observed. I missed it completely.
A movie about terrorists from Pakistan posing as Hindus in India is a turn off whereas a movie about Hindu Pakistanis persecuted in India is awesome. Why so? I am sure the movie is worth a watch but this general attitude is just poor.
One wonders why a full article on Ramchand Pakistani after 4 years, which draws the central idea from India's Ashwin Kumar's Oscar nominated short film Little Terrorist (2005). But I was keen to look for other names like Slackistan but the article turns out to be JJ promotion.
@Parvez:
Are u serious, you think that the seperation was a good movie?. I've watched loads of movies of that type at the Auckland Film Festival, believe me nothing special. If Iran ever deserved an oscar it should be for "Children of Heaven" but sadly they didn't win(Politics Koff Koff). Even the movie "We Bought a Zoo" was better hah.
Sorry, the movie's name was Muthi Bhar Chawal by Sangeeta based on Novel Ek Chadar Mailee See.
A great movie about human suffering
will see it.
@Parvez: "After your last write up I watched Mr.& Mrs Iyer which I admit was good but the first hour of the movie could easily have been cut down without losing the substance."
Have you seen the 6th sense? How clues about the truth are provided throughout the movie via incidents that seem odd but one cannot put a finger on? It was a similar exercise in the first hour of Mr. and Mrs. Iyer. As an example, when Mrs. Iyer shares her water with Raj/Raja, he justputs his lips to the bottle and drinks it. Instinctively, my Hindu upbringing about not eating khoota made me go "What s he doing?" There were several such clues that Raj/Raja was not a Hindu that were provided during the first half which give you the aha moment when the truth is revealed under such a traumatic situation.
Khamosh Pani(Silent Water) too was a brilliant movie.. Set in 1979 Pakistan. A village in Pakistan. A widow sees her 17 years old son being attracted to Islamist militants.
After your last write up I watched Mr.& Mrs Iyer which I admit was good but the first hour of the movie could easily have been cut down without losing the substance. Saw Ramchand Pakistani when it came out and yes it was a great effort. While on movies, suggest you see the Iranian film by Asghar Farhadi ' A Separation '. If I'm not mistaken he got an Oscar for it and very well deserved to.