Posted: 06/02/2009

Smile Pinki

by Bridget Ascenzo

The word heartwarming gets tossed around a lot these days but it has never been more appropriate than in describing Megan Mylan’s new Oscar-winning documentary Smile Pinki. This “real life fairy tale” from the acclaimed filmmaker of 2003’s Lost Boys of Sudan chronicles the journey of five year old Pinki and 11 year old Ghutaru as they travel from their villages in rural India to Banares, where they receive cleft palate surgery at the GS Memorial Plastic Surgery Hospital through the Smile Train organization.

To chronicle these stories, Mylan employs a cinéma vérité style, contrasting naturalistic shots with staged interaction between filmmaker and subject. The delicate plucking of the sitar and the gentle, buoyant beat of the tabla drum accompany the stories of these plucky children as they pass from a life of ridicule to days filled with school lessons, friends and a degree of normalcy unimaginable before their surgeries.

The film opens with shots of Pankaj, a social worker for GS Memorial, gently but persistently canvassing India’s crowded cities and remote countryside in hopes of persuading families to send their children born with cleft palates to Banaras for free surgery. Through Pankaj we meet our protagonists: Pinki, a spunky five year old with an impish grin, and Ghutaru, an eleven year old who has never been to school but is passionate about cricket. Both shyly tell of being ostracized and called “cut lip” by peers and though their parents candidly worry about their futures, one is struck by the absolute devotion and love they have for their children despite the constant rejection they face from society.

Though both families often struggle just to put food on the table, they leap at the prospect of free corrective surgery and so Pinki and Ghutaru, each accompanied by a parent, make the long journey to Banaras. There they join hundreds of children and react with wide eyed wonder when they realize for the first time that they are not the only ones with cleft palates. Buoyed by this knowledge and by the compassion and kindness shown by the hospital staff, Pinki and Ghutaru prepare for their surgeries and dream of the normal childhood that awaits them.

So often documentaries such as this can leave one uplifted by aspects of the narrative but distressed by the overall highlighted social condition. In this case, however, one comes away from Smile Pinki heartened by the resilience of the children, the unwavering love and support of their parents, the generosity of the hospital personnel and most of all, the amazing success of the operation itself and the ordinary lives the children and their parents now look forward to.

To view the trailer for Smile Pinki, please visit http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9euor_smile-pinki-on-hbo_shortfilms

To learn more about Smile Train or to make a donation, please visit www.smiletrain.org.

Or catch the uplifting Oscar®-winning documentary Smile Pinki when it debuts June 3, exclusively on HBO.

Bridget Ascenzo is a freelance writer and singer living on Chicago’s north side.

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