Ajit Rai/Cannes

Bollywood's veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah said at the screening of Manthan at the 77th Cannes Film Festival on Friday that it was a proud moment for Indian cinema. Remembering the entire team Manthan, he said that many people who were part of Shyam Benagal's 47-year-old film are no longer with them.

The Film Heritage Foundation, founded by Shivendra Singh Dungarpur in Mumbai, has preserved this film in 4K and he made it available to the Cannes Film Festival. 

This is the third consecutive time that Indian films protected by this institution are being shown at the prestigious Film Festival. The main actors of the film, Girish Karnad, Smita Patil, and Amrish Puri have passed away.

Vijay Tendulkar, scriptwriter, and Kaifi Azmi, who wrote the dialogues, are also no more. Govind Nihalani was the cinematographer and the music was composed by Vanraj Bhatia. 

Shyam Benegal could not come to Cannes to attend the festival due to his illness. The Cannes Film Festival gave a ceremonial red carpet welcome to Naseeruddin Shah and the Manthan team.

Poster of Manthan with Smita Patil

Shivendra Singh Dungarpur announced that Manthan will be released in 70 cities of the country on June 1. Naseeruddin Shah said that this was the first film in India that a film was financed with crowd funding. At that time, five lakh farmers in Gujarat had raised ten lakh rupees by donating two rupees each.

At the age of 39, Varghese Kurien formed the first milk production co-operative society in a village in the Kheda district of Gujarat, which later became the foundation of the Amul Co-operative Society in Anand. Naseeruddin Shah said that Manthan was the turning point of his career. It was just not any other film for him.

In Manthan, Shyam Benegal has taken cinematic aesthetics to newer heights. His contribution to giving artistic veneer to the Indian cinema will always be remembered. He said that when this film was released, he was very nervous because there was no glamour, dancing, singing or any special action in this film.

Looking at this film today, years later, one realizes how serious and committed its team was. 

Smita Patil's son Prateek Babbar, who was there at the screening of Manthan in the Cannes Classic section of the Festival said that he never saw his mother, as she died a few days after his birth, and that he has seen her only on the cinema screen. 

Babbar sharing his thoughts at the Cannes Film Festival

Prateek said he had no words to express his happiness about participation in the Cannes Film Festival. After the screening of Manthan, the audience kept standing and clapping for Naseeruddin Shah at the Buñuel Theater here for a long time. 

In a way, this film is a historical document of Indian cinema. The scenography is somewhat stylized and realistic. Melodrama has been avoided in the script and the actors sound natural.

The story which is based on the Anand cooperative movement of Gujarat has Dr. Rao (Girish Karnad), a veterinary surgeon. He and his colleagues Chandravarkar (Anant Nag) and Deshmukh (Dr. Mohan Agashe) reach a village in Gujarat where poor farmers survive by selling milk. They want to form a milk production-operative society there on behalf of the government.

Mishra ji (Amrish Puri) suffers the most loss due to this. He used to run a private dairy by buying milk from the villagers at throwaway prices and selling it at a higher price in the city. The village sarpanch (Koolbhushan Kharbanda) initially supports him but as the participation of Dalits increases, he along with Mishra becomes the farmers' enemy.

Naseeruddin Shah, surrounded by fans at the Cannes film Festival,

Bhola (Naseeruddin Shah) is a Dalit young angry man. Long ago an urban contractor had made his mother pregnant and left her to live alone and with a stigma. Bhola is always angry at the rich and upper-caste people. On the advice of Dr. Rao, the Dalits unite and defeat the Sarpanch in the elections. To take revenge, the Sarpanch sets fire to the Dalit colony.

ALSO READ: POJK people are no longer ready to put up with Pak's delusionary Kashmir policy

Soon, Bindu's missing husband returns and accuses Dr. Rao of misconduct. In the end, we see that Dr. Rao is catching the train with his wife at a deserted railway station and Bhola is coming running. The train starts. The rest of the story is about Bhola overcoming all conspiracies against him and setting up a dairy co-operative society.