While the world oohs and aahs over Slumdog Millionaire's 10 Oscar nominations, there's another film with an Indian connection at the 2009 Annual Academy Awards.
Smile Pinki, nominated for Best Documentary -- Short Subject, has gone largely unnoticed. It is a 39-minute long film about two girls, Pinki and Ghutaru, from a village called Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh. The girls are born with a harelip, and their families are unable to pay for the simple surgery that can cure it.
Made in Bhojpuri and Hindi, the film marks their journey from Mirzapur to Varanasi's GS Memorial Plastic Surgery Hospital. They are operated on by a plastic surgeon, who happens to be the project director of Smile Train -- a charity that offers free surgery to children with harelips.
Now, Pinki is ready to flash her brand new smile on the red carpet leading to the Oscars, where her parents and her have been invited.
Smile Pinki has been directed by San Francisco-based documentary filmmaker Megan Mylan. The music director is an Indian, guitarist R Prasanna.
We wish the film all the best.
