Refugee (2000)

Bihar-based Manzur Ahmed, his wife, his mother, and his daughter, decide to re-locate to East Pakistan after the partitioning of Hindustan during 1948, following the tussle between Sheikh ... See full summary »

Director:

J.P. Dutta

Writers:

J.P. Dutta (screenplay), J.P. Dutta (story)

Stars:

Jackie Shroff, Sunil Shetty, Abhishek Bachchan

12 wins & 10 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Jackie Shroff	...	BSF Officer Raghuvir Singh
Sunil Shetty	...	Ranger Mohammad Ashraf
Abhishek Bachchan	...	Refugee
Kareena Kapoor	...	Nazneen Ahmed
Reena Roy	...	Amina Mohammad
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Sudesh Berry	...	Gul Hamid
Hemant Chaudhary
Avtar Gill	...	Atta Mohammad
Vrajesh Hirjee	...	BSF Officer
Puneet Issar	...	Sikh Priest
Shadaab Khan	...	Shadab Mohammad
Kulbhushan Kharbanda	...	Manzur Ahmed
Anupam Kher	...	Jaan Mohammad
Geetawali Rajkumari	...	Salma-Naaz's little sister
Mukesh Tiwari	...	Tausif

Storyline

Bihar-based Manzur Ahmed, his wife, his mother, and his daughter, decide to re-locate to East Pakistan after the partitioning of Hindustan during 1948, following the tussle between Sheikh Mujib Rehman and Pakistan's General Bhutto, which led to the formation of Bangladesh, where Manzur and several other Muslims were forced to re-locate to Pakistan. In order to do this, they cross two borders, one with India and Bangladesh, and the second with India and Pakistan. The route from Bangladesh leads from Dhaka then to Guwahati then to Delhi then to Ajmer then to Bhuj, and then on to Pakistan's Haji Peer. They get as far as Bhuj, but afterward they are assisted by Jaan Mohammad's son, known only as Refugee, who helps them trek their way across the Rann desert to Atta Mohammad's house in Pakistan. Refugee considers his clients as mere items of luggage and refuses to be emotionally involved with them. Then he meets Nazneen and he forgets this rule, and they soon both fall in love with each ...

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Plot Keywords:

pakistan | desert | muslim | fire | cruelty | 

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Taglines:

A human story

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Genres:

Drama | Musical | Romance

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Details

Official Sites:

Indya.com

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi

Release Date:

30 June 2000 (India)

Also Known As:

Uchodzca

Filming Locations:

Rann of Kutch, Gujarat, India

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$160,000, 7 July 2000, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$540,000, 9 July 2000

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The song "Mere Humsafar" was sampled from the song "Main Hoon Tere Raagini" from Roop Sundari.

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Connections

Referenced in Comedy Nights with Kapil: Happy New Year - Part 1 (2014)

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Soundtracks

Mere Humsafar
Written by Javed Akhtar
Composed by Anu Malik
Performed by Sonu Nigam and Alka Yagnik
Courtesy of Saregama HMV

User Reviews

Well developed story of personal lives falling victim to politics

REFUGEE is "A Human Story", according to the tag-line. More specifically, it's about a guy called "Refugee" who lives in a village on the Indo-Pakistan border, and helps Muslim refugees from Bangladesh to cross over to Pakistan where they hope they will have a better chance of a life free from oppression. The first such group that we see him transport across the desert consists of two families, one of whom is eventually revealed to be Kareena Kapoor under her veil. He takes a bit of a shine to her, and she to him. Love blossoms, and it is will do in these circumstances. The family settle in a village on the Pakistan side of the border, and they meet up with Refugee whenever he makes the trip across.

But crossing the border is not a terribly safe activity, especially with Jackie Shroff guarding the Indian side and Sunil Shetty guarding the Pakistan side. One might expect that Refugee would encounter trouble with the law making these trips on a regular basis, and indeed the guards are soon on his case. But the law turns out to be amongst the least of his worries in the harsh and extreme desert living conditions where war and hardship are a way of life.

REFUGEE is a movie of two halves, or possibly three thirds. We open up with an hour or so of character development as the romance between Refugee and Naaz grows, and we learn more of the families and others in the village. In the second hour or so the complications that have been hinted at before start to develop and grow, personal conflicts with others rise to the surface, and life for our heroes starts to get tough. In the next hour the tension that has built erupts and the situation becomes desperate as politics and social turmoil overwhelm the lovers personal lives entirely, all of which builds to an insanely incendiary conclusion.

At 3 minutes short of the 3.5 hour mark, REFUGEE requires a little bit of stamina, but it uses its time well to flesh out the situation and the characters. The overall theme of personal happiness being stomped on by political issues is one that comes across a lot in Indian films. REFUGEE tries hard to be fair and to present the message that people are people and killing each other over the concept of 'nation' is a terrible waste of the potential of life. In the end there does seem to be something of an "India good, Pakistan bad" sentiment in the film regardless of its efforts otherwise. The film closes with a speech dreaming about a world with no borders, "No passport, no visa"... but one can't help suspect that J.P.Dutta imagines such a world would be established on India's terms rather than Pakistan's.