Ramchand Pakistani

Champa (Nandita Das) is a Hindu woman who is left desolate when her young son and husband disappear one day from their village at the India-Pakistan border near Nagarparkar, in the Tharparkar district of the Sindh province. The film depicts the crossing of the India-Pakistan border, during a period (June 2002) of war-like tension between the two countries, by two members of a Pakistani Hindu family belonging to the 'untouchable' dalit caste, and the extraordinary consequences of this unintended action upon the lives of a woman, a man, and their son.

The film is about a Hindu Dalit family living in Pakistan peacefully. Ramchand, the main protagonist who is 8 years old, is the son of Shankar and Champa. One day, after an altercation with his mother, Ramchand runs away in anger and, accidentally, crosses the Indo-Pakistan border into India. His father follows him and, he too, crosses the border into India.

After being arrested by the border security personnel, they are sent to a prison in India and stay there for a long time. They get a release order soon, but later it turns out to be a mistake and they are sent back to the jail. Ramchand, the 8 years old boy, and his father Shankar are unregistered prisoners during much of their stay in India.^[2] Meanwhile, Ramchand’s mother, Champa, leads a life of loneliness and although she takes a temporary job in a faraway place, she returns to her village.

Finally, after 5 years,^[2] when Ramchand has grown a few years, he gets released. He returns home to his mother. His father, Shankar, also gets released soon after. They are united and there, the film ends.

• Nandita Das as Champa^[1]
• Syed Fazal Hussain as Younger Ramchand^[2]
• Navaid Jabbar as Older Ramchand^[2]
• Rashid Farooqui as Shankar^[2]
• Maria Wasti as Kamla^[2]
• Nouman Ijaz as Abdullah^[2]
• Adnan Shah as Sharma
• Adarsh Ayaz as Moti
• Farooq Pario as Suresh
• Shahood Alvi as Asif Hussain
• Zhalay Sarhadi as Lakshmi
• Atif Badar as Lalu
• Saleem Mairaj as Vishesh
• Saif-e-Hasan as Murad
• Tahiirz as VKS
• Rao Saleem as Interrogator
• Karim Bux Baloch as Baloch
• Master Yaqub as Baba Gul
• Hassan Niazi as Deepak
• Kazim Raza as Professor
• Muhammad Rafiq as Bengali
• Sajid Shah as Inspector
• Iqbal Motilani as Maulvi
• Anis Chachar as Captain Saleem

This film had six screenings at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 2010.^[2]

The soundtrack is composed by Debojyoti Mishra^[2] and include the following songs:

This film won the following awards:

• FIPRESCI Prize from the International Federation of Film Critics at the Osian Film Festival, July, 2008^[7]
• Winner of Honourable Mention by the 13th Annual Satyajit Ray Award at the 2008 London Film Festival.^[7]
• Best Actor for Rashid Farooqi at the KaraFilm Festival, Pakistan, 2009
• Winner of Audience Award at the Fribourg International Film Festival, Switzerland, March 2009.^[7]
• Winner of Special Mention by the Eucumenical Jury at the Fribourg International Film Festival March 2009.^[7]
• Winner of Special Mention by the E-Changer Award at the Fribourg International Film Festival in March 2009^[7]
• Ramchand Pakistani received a silver medal in the feature film category at the 2012 SAARC Film Awards.
• Rashid Farooqui received the award for best actor in the feature film at the 2012 SAARC Film Awards.
• Ramchand Pakistani won Best Film Award on Pakistan Media Award in 2010.

• Gori temple, the site of Meri Maati song.
• Nagarparkar Bhodesar temple: the site of Tarrin Paunda song.

• Ramchand Pakistani at IMDb
• Movie Review Ramchand Pakistani (2008)