When I went to the Cleveland International Film Festival I saw the movie “I Am Sindhutai Sapkal.” The movie tells the story of Chindi who was born in India in the 1950s to a poor farming family. Despite the fact that Chindi wants to get an education she is only allowed to pursue school through the fourth grade. She is forced into an arranged marriage at the age of twelve and is eventually wrongfully accused of adultery and thrown out of the house by her abusive husband. However, despite all struggles she faced, she was eventually able to create orphanages all over India and help hundreds of Indian children find a home.
A. Personal Issues: One of the things that really resonated with me throughout this movie was the fact that Chindi was not allowed to get an education. When she was young, she was only allowed to go to school if she completed all her farm chores which usually caused her to miss at least half of the school day. Furthermore, once she got married she was forced to read in secret because her husband did not approve of reading and didn’t consider it the duty of a wife. I was very surprised by this because I come from a culture that values education for all people and I couldn’t imagine being denied an education because of my gender. I also grew up in a culture that promotes equality between men and women which was definitely not the case in this film. I think this film really opened my eyes up to different issues in other parts of the world and the fact that there are probably a lot of problems that I’m not even aware of. I think most Americans that see this film would probably have a similar reaction to the film as me because they were raised in a similar culture. However, I think people from other parts of the world with different backgrounds would have different reactions to this film because it would hit them in different ways. I think one of the great things about any text is that different people can interpret it in different ways based on their own life experiences.
B. Technique: Overall, I thought the movie was very well done. I particularly liked the music because a certain song would play every time something bad was about to happen. I also thought the dialogue between the characters really allowed viewers to get a glimpse into the lives of the characters and their values and beliefs. I think one of this film’s biggest strengths is its music which really helped add to the characters’ emotions and trials in life.
C. Acting: I thought the acting in the film was excellent. There were three different actresses that played the role of Chindi because of the different ages of the character in the film. I thought all three actresses did a good job of portraying a single character by using the same mannerisms and speech patterns. I also thought the other actors in the movie did a great job of making their characters’ real.
D. Plot: One of the things that made this movie so great was that it was a true story. I think that really made it interesting to see the plot unfold.
E. Themes: There are a lot of themes presented in this movie. Most importantly, I think the film speaks towards women’s rights and promotes the improvement of life conditions for women all over the world. I also think the film speaks towards the importance of getting an education and feeling a sense of belonging in the world. This is illustrated in the film when Chindi goes on to help orphans who need some adult guidance in their lives.
F. Genre: I think that if this film were to belong to any genre it would be a drama. The movie is serious and the characters are realistic conveying an overall inspirational message of the perseverance of individuals.
G. Representation: Different characters were represented in different ways in this movie. The men were represented as chauvinistic and controlling and the women were represented as sad and hard-working. Furthermore, the poor class was represented as hard workers struggling to make a living and the rich were portrayed as powerful and greedy. I think the characters are represented in this way because that’s how the main character saw the world and that’s the way people in her life acted. The different representations of different groups of people were based off of the main character’s own life experiences.
H. Ideology: This movie really challenged the false idea that men and women are not equal and spoke towards the importance of equality between men and women.
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