Nandita Das, Ramchand Pakistani Make an Impact

From Tribeca Film Festival:

The South Asian community was out in force for the premiere of Mehreen Jabbar’s (pictured right) Ramchand Pakistani on Monday night, and though the crowd was certainly engaged by the all-too-topical true story, in which eight-year-old Ramchand accidentally wanders over the Pakistani border with India and winds up imprisoned for almost five years, it was star Nandita Das (pictured left) who had the packed theater in the palm of her hand.

Das drew an ovation for her almost-wordless performance as Ramchand’s mother, Champa, and got another round of applause upon opening her mouth to riff on Jabbar’s explanation of how she lassoed the Bollywood superstar into her debut feature. “I told Mehreen that I’d do the film, but only if I could play Ramchand,” quipped Das, who went on to note that this was, in fact, her second time performing for Jabbar, following a short film the two women had worked on together.

According to the director’s father, Javed Jabbar, who also produced Ramchand Pakistani, Das isn’t the only person with Ramchand-envy.

More here.