Of hope,courage & beyond

The film mentioned here is not some melodramatic romantic movie or a thought-provoking art film. Rather,it is a Marathi film called Mee Sindhutai Sapkal,based on Sapkal’s real-life story,and has been selected for the London Film Festival which will begin on October 13. The movie will also be screened at the South Asian International Festival which begins from October 27 at New York.

She studied till standard IV and got married at a young age. At 20,Sapkal was thrown of her house with her 10-day-old daughter. She began begging at the Pune Railway Station and,during that period,she even tried committing suicide three times. But she chose to bounce back to life with determination and courage. Today,she is successfully running five orphanages in Pune,Wardha,Chikaldhara and Ahmednagar.

Simplicity personified,Sapkal is elated,surprised and also ignorant about the fact that a film based on her life is making news. “I am basically a dehati. All I can understand is that I am a mother of my 1042 kids and I have to take care of them,” says this 62-year-old. However,she admits that the events portrayed in the film are shown ‘as it is’ and there is no drama or masala added. “Anant Mahadevan,the director of the film,was constantly in touch with me and he took inputs from me for every shot. He cross-checked each and every detail,even the dialogues,” she explains.

Remembering her dark past,she says,”Tired with the everyday struggle,I once made up my mind to end my life. While I was going towards the railway line,my daughter started crying. I assumed that it was God’s way of stopping me from committing suicide.” So,with absolutely nothing in hand,she decided to do something for others.

After she got into social work and her financial situation improved,she visited all the people who helped her while she was going through a tough time. She recalls,”Once,when I had lost all hope,I sat on the steps of a temple and started crying. The priest thought I was hungry and he gave me a chapati and an old saree.” After many years,Sapkal revisited the temple. Though the priest was no more,she gave sweets and clothes to his family members.

On another occasion,she distributed food and spent a whole day with the beggars at a temple in Jalgaon. “Even I used to sit there with a bunch of beggars,” she remembers. Though Sapkal attempted suicide in her real life,she is extremely confident that whoever will see the movie Mee Sindhutai Sapkal will not run away from the hardships of life and will be motivated to fight back.

Till date,she has received 272 awards and recognitions. Some of them have been cash rewards,while others are trophies and mementos. But instead of the awards,Sapkal wants more people to come forward to help her with her orphanages. “One can’t make bhakri or bhaji out of these awards. I don’t even have enough place to keep them,” she concludes.