Oscar-Winning 'Smile Pinki' All Set to be Screened Across India

Oscar-winning documentary 'Smile Pinki' that gives the message about the cleft surgery in India would be screened across the country.

The director, child actors and doctor who treats cleft is on a five city tour and would now be heading to Chennai, Bangalore, New Delhi and finally to movie star Pinki Sonkar's native city, Varanasi, for the screening of the movie.

Multifactorial Birth Defects - A Cleft Lip And Cleft Palate
Encyclopedia section of medindia explains about A Cleft Lip And Cleft Palate

Pinki, believed to be about six years old, is the star of the short documentary, which won an Academy Award for telling her story.

The 39-minute poignant film, by US-based filmmaker Megan Mylan, recounts how the girl, born into a poor family and with a cleft lip, is taken by a social worker to a hospital that provides free surgery to fix the deformity for thousands of children each year.

Pinki was once an outcast in her village where deformities are not understood, but she was accepted into the community after the surgery.

Cleft Lip Repair
A cleft lip repair is a separation of the upper lip that can extend into the nose. Plastic Surgery is done physical deformity, and to rectify the feeding, and speech problems cleft lip.

Mylan said that a storyline along with a message definitely makes an impact on the audience.

"I think, if Indian audience gives Indian documentaries a chance, they'll be surprised how entertaining they are," Mylan said.

Pinki On The Smile Train
Smile Pinki is a modern day fairy tale about a poor little Indian girl born with a cleft lip, whose life was magically transformed after a simple surgery

Subodh Kumar Singh, doctor who treated Pinki's cleft, said that the number of cleft patients coming for surgeries have already increased after the movie won Oscars. But it's screening would further help in creating awareness.

"I expect that the audience will understand the cause for which this film was made and the cause of the cleft children. And they will come forward to help these children and spread awareness and bring more such patients to hospital," said Singh.

Short Documentary on Cleft Lip Bags Oscar!
Residents of Dabai of Uttar Pradesh huddled together during the wee hours of Monday and prayed for the success of the documentary film 'Smile Pinky' based on the life of a girl from their village.

Singh, who treated Pinki for free, said he has performed 13,000 corrective surgeries at his hospital in Varanasi since 2005 with the help of the US-based charity Smile Train, which aids cleft lip surgery.

There are 165 Smile Train hospitals all across India that provides free surgeries to cleft patients.

The non-governmental organization with 250 surgeons performs about 4000 surgeries every month.

Source-ANI
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