Do the Pakistanis not love their children too?

'Main Hoon Na' embodied an optimism about India-Pakistan relationships that's all but lost now

In the very first scene of Farah Khan’s directorial debut, Main Hoon Na (2004), General Amarjeet Bakshi (Kabir Bedi) asks: “Do Pakistanis not love their children?” Bakshi is the architect of a goodwill gesture, titled Project Milaap, under which the Indian government plans to release civilian Pakistani prisoners languishing in Indian jails after mistakenly crossing the border. He is in a TV studio giving an interview about this, when the show is interrupted by Major Raghavan Dutta (Sunil Shetty), an ex-Army officer who has gone rogue and wants to scuttle Project Milaap. General Bakshi’s rhetorical question is in response to