By IANS
Mumbai : Senior BJP leader L.K. Advani and jurist Ram Jethmalani are among the prominent members of the Sindhi community who will attend a special screening of a movie called “The Awakening” at the Films Division auditorium in New Delhi March 9.
The movie, directed by Dharambir Kumar, traces the lineage of the Sindhis from the time of the Indus Valley Civilisation, though it is not a documentary on the community.
Based on a fictitious story written by Vinod Raman Nayar, it is about a New York-based girl called Sindhu and how, while doing her research on the Indus Valley Civilisation, she discovers her Sindhi roots.
Through the eyes of the girl born and brought up in New York and her Mumbai-based grandmother, who steadfastly holds on to her Sindhi heritage, the movie sees the community’s evolution and the subsequent travails, a large section of its members faced following the partition of India.
The movie dramatises the events that led to largescale migration of the Sindhis from their base, losing touch with their roots, and how the close-knit community later disintegrated.
“The Awakening” has been produced by well-known Sindhi composer, lyricist and singer Koshi Lalvani, wife of Dubai-based businessman Lal Lalvani, and daughter of the noted Sindhi poet Kavi Naraindas Malkani.
Better known for her Sindhi music albums and musical ballet, “Jaag Sindhi Jaag”, this is Koshi Lalvani’s maiden attempt at filmmaking “to reintroduce to the Sindhi youth their rich lineage, culture and language.” She has produced “The Awakening” under the banner of Paradise Pictures.
“I have approached the movie as two stories. One is born out of my imagination about a girl called Sindhu and her journey through history and the other is based on my research on the ancient civilisation that had grown on the banks of the Indus river known in India as ‘Sindhu’. But the movie is basically an attempt to remind the Sindhis scattered the world over about their roots,” Nayar said.
A Maharashtrian girl, Smitaa, plays the role of Sindhu in the movie. The cast includes Vishal Vatwani, Farida Dadi and Pankaj.