''Smile Pinki'' is a 2008 American

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

directed by

Megan Mylan Megan Mylan is an Oscar-winning documentary film director, known for her films ''Simple as Water', Lost Boys of Sudan (film), Lost Boys of Sudan''

. which won the 81st Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject). The film depicts the story of Pinki and Ghutaru, two children in rural India who receive corrective surgery for cleft lips.
''39-minutes in

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of North India, northern, Central India, centr ...

and

Bhojpuri Bhojpuri (;Bhojpuri entry, Oxford Dictionaries
, Oxford U ...

with English subtitles.''

Overview

Pinki Sonkar is a five-year-old girl who is living with a severe

cleft lip A cleft lip contains an opening in the upper lip that may extend into the nose. The opening may be on one side, both sides, or in the middle. A cleft palate occurs when the palate (the roof of the mouth) contains an opening into the nose. The te ...

in one of the poorest areas of India. Not allowed to attend school at her native Rampur Dhabahi village in

Mirzapur Mirzapur () is a city in Uttar Pradesh, India, 827 km from Delhi and 733 km from Kolkata, almost 91 km from Prayagraj (formally known as Allahabad) and 61 km from Varanasi. It is known for its carpets and brassware industries, and the folk ...

, near

Varanasi Varanasi (; ; also Banaras or Benares (; ), and Kashi.) is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world. * * * * The city has a syncretic t ...

, and ostracised because of her deformity, Pinki lives a life of quiet desperation. By chance, Pinki's parents meet Pankaj, a social worker who is traveling village to village, gathering patients for a hospital that provides free cleft lip surgery to thousands of poor children each year through

The Smile Train Smile Train is a nonprofit organization and charity providing corrective surgery for children with cleft lips and palates. Headquartered in New York City and founded in 1999, Smile Train provides free corrective cleft surgery in 87 countries, ...

program. The successful surgery was performed at G.S. Memorial Hospital, by plastic surgeon Dr. Subodh Kumar Singh, who along with Pinki attended the 81st Academy Awards ceremony. In India the film generated national attention with a theatrical, media and community screening campaign to build public health awareness and support for clefts. The film was broadcast on HBO, Sundance Channel and Doordarshan and 8 million free DVDs were distributed. Pinki was invited to toss the coin for the men's singles final at the

2013 Wimbledon Championships The 2013 Wimbledon Championships was a tennis tournament played on grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London in the United Kingdom. It was the 127th edition of the Wimbledon Championships and were held fro ...

, London.

References

External links

* * , posted by

Smile Train Smile Train is a nonprofit organization and charity providing corrective surgery for children with cleft lips and palates. Headquartered in New York City and founded in 1999, Smile Train provides free corrective cleft surgery in 87 countries, ...

{{AcademyAwardBestDocumentaryShort 2001–2020 2008 films Best Documentary Short Subject Academy Award winners 2000s short documentary films American short documentary films Documentary films about India Documentary films about children with disability Documentary films about health care Dentistry in India 2000s American films