DIRECTOR Anant Mahadevan’s biopic of a woman known as Mahararashtra’s Mother Teresa is a moving and inspiring account of a mother forced to abandon her own children but who goes on to care for thousands of orphans.
Sindhutai was 12 when she got married to a 30-year-old man in rural Maharashtra. She bears him two sons, but when she is nine months pregnant with her third child, Sindhutai is kicked out of her home by a husband who suspects her of infidelity. She turns to her mother for help but is shown the door for bringing ‘shame’ on the family. Left with a newborn girl and no money or food, Sindhutai considers ending her life more than once, before deciding to turn her life around. Despair gives way to determination and she uses her limited school education and boundless conviction to fight for the causes of tribals, women and children. Today, she travels all over the world, giving talks about her life and work, all the while raising funds for her institutions in Maharashtra which look after underprivileged children.
Making a film about a real-life hero who overcomes a life of hardship and turmoil poses the threat of infusing the movie with a sense of melancholy. However, Mahadevan’s concise and accurate script is uplifting and poignant. Accurate, because – the director revealed – when shown the film for the first time, Sindhutai wept as she relived her torment on screen.‘I thought my tears had dried,’ she told Mahadevan.
A mother-daughter pair of actresses who portray the younger and older Sindhutai do full justice to her character as a woman who embraced motherhood long after she gave birth to her own children. – Rithika Siddhartha
I am Sindhutai Sapkal
Director: Ananth Mahadevan
Cast: Tejaswini Pandit, Jyoti Chandekar, Upendra Limaye, Neena Kulkarni
110 minutes
BFI London Film Festival 2010