Man Push Cart - 2005
Directed by Ramin Bahrani
Ahmad, a widowed Pakistani immigrant, works as a food cart vendor in New York City. Every morning he wakes extremely early to drag the heavy push cart to its location on a busy city street. His customers are unaware that Ahmad was a famous rock star in his home country, and the former musician prefers this. Ahmad now concentrates on earning money in any way possible so he can eventually own his own cart and support his young son who lives with his in-laws.
Color, 1 hour 27 minutes, English/Urdu
Cast
| Ahmad Razvi | Ahmad |
| Leticia Dolera | Noemi |
| Charles Daniel Sandoval | Mohammad |
| Ali Reza | Manish |
| Farooq "Duke" Muhammad | Duke |
| Upendran K. Panicker | Noori |
| Arun Lal | Father-in-Law |
| Razia Mujahid | Mother-in-Law |
| Hassan Razvi | Ahmad's Son |
| Mustafa Razvi | Pakistani Driver |
| Atlaf Houssein | Atlaf |
| Bill Lewis | Final Customer |
| Abdelrahma Abdelaziz | Friend at Bar |
| Ronak Ricky Patel | Newsstand Worker |
| Shaana Diya | Club Worker |
| Bhavna Toor | Ahmad's Wife |
| Adrian Quezada | Ahmad's Baby |
| Atif Muhammad Mirza | Atif the Stab Victim |
| Rn Rao | Veterinarian |
| Issam Abdelkader | Push Cart Garage Owner |
Crew
| Writer | Ramin Bahrani |
| Director | Ramin Bahrani |
| Producer | Ramin Bahrani Pradip Ghosh Bedford T. Bentley III |
| Director of Photography | Michael Simmonds |
| Production Designer | Charles Dafler |
| Editor | Ramin Bahrani |
| Sound Mixer | Christof Gerbert |
| Music | Peiyman Yazdanian |
Pictures
Ahmad begins each day early in the morning dragging his cart down a busy New York City street.
Making the coffee.
Ahmad meets a fellow Pakistani from his home city of Lahore who later helps him find work.
Back down the same path, each day brings Ahmad closer towards owning the cart outright.
Ever the entrepreneur, the overworked Ahmad makes extra money selling adult DVD's on the side, in this case a fair trade for a pack of cigarettes from a fellow vendor.
When Ahmad is hired to paint his new acquaintance's apartment, his fellow countrymen recognizes the former rock star.
Ahmad listens to an old tape of his music with the company of a kitten he took in from the street.
Long way home.
Things get complicated when Ahmad becomes involved with fellow cart worker Noemi (Leticia Dolera).
Happier times - Ahmad and his wife.
DVD
External Reviews
By Stephen Holden The New York Times
Ahmad (Ahmad Razvi), the Pakistani immigrant who is the protagonist of Ramin Bahrani's "Man Push Cart," goes through a Sisyphean daily grind. In the wee small hours of each morning, he commutes by subway from his shabby one-room apartment in Brooklyn to Midtown Manhattan, where he sells coffee, doughnuts and bagels on the street. Lugging his portable propane tank, he stocks his stainless-steel cart, then pushes it through traffic to his station on a corner of Avenue of the Americas.
Much of the movie takes place before sunrise during the winter months, and images of the illuminated spire of the Chrysler Building spearing the night sky and of tree branches crusted with tiny white lights evoke the city's crushing indifference. In the scenes filmed in daylight, it is often raining. Continued
By Owen Gleiberman Entertainment Weekly
New York movies once took place in steam and noise and grit and traffic. It's rare to see that sort of thing today, but "Man Push Cart" is a pungent exception. As Ahmad (Ahmad Razvi), a handsome young Pakistani immigrant, drags his coffee-and-doughnut pushcart through the wee hours of the Manhattan morning, the movie immerses you in his humdrum rituals -- the lighting of the bagel oven, the flickering exchanges with customers -- yet it also makes you aware of the life outside his bubble. In its lonely-immigrant-in-the-big-city way, "Man Push Cart" is as steeped in the jumbly anonymity of the streets as "Taxi Driver" was. Continued
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