A film festival to give a tribute to veteran actor Girish Karnad is being organised in city. The festival marked its first day on Sunday with screening Bollywood movie ‘Manthan’. The film was screened at Bharat Bhavan.
Manthan is a 1976 Hindi film directed by Shyam Benegal, inspired by the pioneering milk cooperative movement of Verghese Kurien, and is written jointly by him and Vijay Tendulkar. It is set amidst the backdrop of the White Revolution of India.
The film won the 1977 National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi and National Film Award for Best Screenplay for Vijay Tendulkar, and was also India's submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film for 1976.
The film features stars like Naseeruddin Shah, Girish Karnad, Mohan Agashe and Smita Patil.
Dr. Rao a young veterinary doctor with his team of Deshmukh, Chandravarkar and others comes to a village in Kheda district, Gujarat. The village is inhabited by poor people whose chief occupation seems to be cattle-rearing and producing milk, which they sell to a local dairy owner Mishra Ji. Mishra Ji pays them ridiculously low amounts for their milk.
Dr. Rao and his team have arrived with the purpose of setting up a co-operative society dairy which will be owned collectively and managed by the villagers themselves. As Dr. Rao and his team grapple with village politics, rigid casteism and general distrust of the village folk, they face planned hostility from the local Harijan community's leader Bhola who harbours deep anger and resentment against the higher caste Panchayat Head. Local village women are led by a feisty young woman Bindu. Then, they work together against corruption.