There goes an old adage: “Education is one of the surest ways to escape poverty.” Many people have taken this route in their life odyssey and SindhuTai Sapkal was no exception. But reality forced Sindhutai to abandon her education after fourth standard and enter into an early marriage at the age of 12 with a man twice her age.

His passion for the discipline of reading continued even after his marriage, but his partner in the marriage was of the opinion that his wife was trying to show that she was more educated than he was. The end result was that the hands of fate caused Sindhutai to fail for a purpose. Coming out of the forest of a broken home and marriage, the only obvious choice Sindhutai witnessed were his two failed suicide attempts.

Directed by Ananth Narayan Mahadevan and produced by Sachin and Bindiya Khanolkar, the director’s first Marathi film reveals the reality of life based on Sindhutai Sapkal’s book “Mee Vanvasi”.

Even before its release, the film has been met with applause in the International Film Festival community. “Mee Sindhutai Sapkal” had its world premiere at the 54th London Film Festival last month, followed by a screening at the South Asia International Film Festival in New York. It was also the closing film of the Third Eye Ninth Asian Film Festival, Mumbai. The cast’s Tejaswini Pandit is nominated for the Best Actress Award at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards to be decided by an international jury in December 2010 in Brisbane.

The biopic shows the survival journey of Sindhutai Sapkal, who grew up in the hinterland of Vidharbha and had to beg for money and food to support himself and his little daughter. Although all was lost in the battles of life, the only thing that propelled Sindhutai forward was the lamp of hope.

Today this sixty-year-old is a proud mother of more than 1000 orphan children who gives speeches to earn a living for the orphans as Sindhutai strongly believes “Bhashan hai to rashan hai”. The one big success of hers (her commitment to the orphanage) made her put an end to all of her previous failures.

The climate scenario pictures Sindhutai now, at the age of 60, invited to address her first Marathi Vishwa Sammelan in San Francisco. On the humor side, it’s equally interesting to see the journey of first-time air traveler Sindhutai across the seven seas.

Well said, behind every success there is untold pain in one’s heart and this pain is usually revealed when the individual rises to the top. Today, Sindhutai Sapkal with reference to authority says that if there is someone who needs a mother there is a helping hand from “Mee Sindhutai Sapkal”.

cast and crew

Director (Ananth Narayan Mahadevan), Producer (Sachin Khanolkar and Bindiya Khanolkar), Screenplay (Ananth Narayan Mahadevan, Sanjay Pawar) Cinematography (K.Raj Kumar), Cast (Tejaswini Pandit – Sindhutai 24 to 40 years old, Jyoti Chandekar – Sindhutai 60 years old ) , Pranjal Shetye – Sindhutai 12 years old, Upendra Limaye, Suhas Palshikar, Neena Kulkarni, Charusheela Sable and Ganesh Yadav.