Sapna Moti Bhavnani has made an incredible documentary Sindhustan, about her ancestral homeland. And she is requesting the Prime Minister of Pakistan to let her visit Sindh, now in Pakistan, after her visa being rejected twice. Will he help the fruit of a tree visit its roots?
. @ImranKhanPTI sir i am a documentary filmmaker frm India & have made a documentary on Sindh called @sindhustan i have been rejected twice to get a visa to Sindh but i hear you are different and want peace .. so do we! Please invite me and my film to Sindh .. it is my dream! pic.twitter.com/jF1nLdjQKR
— Sapna Moti Bhavnani (@sapnabhavnani) July 23, 2019
You’ve heard many jokes about Sindhis. Some of you have Sindhi friends. But what do you really know about the people of Sindh? Sindhustan, a documentary by Sapna Bhavnani, widely known as a celebrity hairstylist, tells the largest human migration story of a culture in worldwide history, from Sindh as a result of the India – Pakistan Partition in 1947, and catalogues the loss and longing of the community.
The story is told through ink and laced with a curry recipe. How? It started with Bhavnani’s request for a visa for Pakistan to visit Sindh being denied in 2016. In 2017, she decided to tattoo both her legs with the past and present. With art inspired by Sindh’s Ajrak and Bihar’s Madhubani art, the tattoos covering every inch of her legs have been created in 10 days under the needle by tattoo artist Yogesh Waghmare. Her right leg tells the story of her history – of the days her family was in Shikarpur in Sindh, and the trauma they went through during the Partition. Her left leg tells the story of their present life in Mumbai, the Gateway of India and the sea.
As she goes around in the documentary asking people for their stories, Bhavnani’s aunt tells us the secret to making Sindhi curry, which acts as the thread as impressive Sindhis such as late Dada Vaswani and Leila Advani share their stories.
The film premiered at the New York Indian Film Festival in May 2019, where it was awarded the Best Documentary Feature. And has since done well in the film festival circuit. And she has now tweeted to the Prime Minister of Pakistan to let her visit Sindh, and screen the documentary there. And she has released the official promo trailer in the hope of being heard. Sir, are you listening? Sapna Moti Bhavnani is proudly Sindhustan.