I Am Sindhutai Sapkal

They say God could not be everywhere, so he created mothers. Sindhutai Sapkal is the mother of all mothers, a woman of astonishing fortitude who survived unimaginable hardship to found several Indian orphanages that have sheltered thousands of children. The film begins with her girlhood in 1950s rural Maharastra. Little Chindi scurries from her duties as keeper of the family's water buffalo to arrive late to school every day. Her mother forces her into a marriage at age 12, and her much older husband beats her for reading in secret. Pregnant for the third time at 23, she is accused by her husband of infidelity and cast out of the house. Chindi begins a journey to provide for herself and her infant daughter, scavenging graveyard offerings and singing outside temples for coins. By pure determination, she gains the confidence to speak out for the rights of the downtrodden, eventually becoming the saintly woman known to millions as “Mai,” or mother. I AM SINDHUTAI SAPKAL is an uplifting true story. (In Marathi with subtitles) –B.B.