Film Heritage Foundation director on 'Manthan' Cannes premiere: It is relevant even today

The 77th Cannes Film Festival, which kickstarts today, will see eight Indian films being screened for the delegates. While Payal Kapadia's 'All We Imagine As Light' is making noise for being the first Indian film to compete for the Palme d'Or Award at the Cannes Film Festival after around 30 years, many eyes are on the premiere of the restored version of the 1976 film 'Manthan'. The film will be screened on May 17 under the Cannes Classics selection, which showcases classics, restored prints, and documentaries.

The film starred Smita Patil, Naseeruddin Shah and Govind Nihalani in the lead roles and was shot in the village of Sanganva in Gujarat. Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, director of Film Heritage Foundation, spoke to IndiaToday.In about taking ‘Manthan’ to a global audience and how it's a relevant film in today's time. He shared that the film showcases the extreme diversity of Indian cinema, which many films would never represent.

“Can there be any other representation than so many farmers being its producers?” he smiled and said. Readers may know, the Shyam Benegal directorial is the earliest example of a film produced through crowdfunding. 5,00,000 farmers, who were members of the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd, contributed Rs 2 each to the film, which was instrumental in strengthening the milk movement in the country.

Elaborating on the restoration and the film’s selection for Cannes, Dungarpur said, "We received the Shyam Benegal archive 10 years back and since the last few years, we have been discussing restoring ‘Manthan’. It's one of his favourite films, and he said he'd love it if it could be restored. The idea of crowdsourcing a film itself is so striking, and we want people to witness the amazing story. The original camera negatives, the source of the restoration process, were not exactly in good shape. It had turned green, and it was quite a challenge.”

“It took us some time to get everything in place. We worked closely with the people associated with the film, checked the photographs to understand the colours and the raw stock, and visited where the film was shot. The Amul Milk Cooperative was really helpful, and we finally managed to restore it in our centers in Italy and India."

He added how it's a record from an Indian point of view as it's their third consecutive selection at Cannes. The Film Heritage Foundation official also shared how it would be the first time Naseeruddin Shah would be visiting the festival. Joining him would be Smita Patil's family and the daughter of Dr. Verghese Kurien, who is known as the father of the White Revolution. The selection seems like a tribute to the film and Shivendra Singh Dungarpur added how 'Manthan' is very relevant in today's time.

"The fact that so many farmers could come together to produce a film which talks about women empowerment, caste and humanity in many ways - it is everything relevant today. It steered the milk revolution and was backed by brilliant actors. The writing was fabulous, and the song 'Mero Gaam Katha Parey' continues to be iconic,” he said.

“The restoration and then it being picked up by festivals would help more people to watch such important films. Our only aim is to bring such beautiful films back to the public,” he added. He further said that the team plans to release the film in theatres soon. “We have not decided the date, but we will take it to cinema halls so that more and more people, especially the younger generation can watch it,” he told IndiaToday.In.

Shivendra Singh Dungarpur added that he got into restoring films because of his love towards cinema heritage. He added that there are many films which were once popular but are off the radar now. He also added how there are many regional films that one never gets a chance to watch. “We are proud of the fact that we are helping these films reach an audience. How else would a normal person get to see these forgotten classics,” he said.

Talking about the most difficult restoration they had in hand, Dungarpur named the 1984 Odia film 'Maya Miriga'. He shared how it was really challenging to put the Nirad N. Mohapatra directorial back together. "It took us almost two years and a lot of effort. It was almost like reliving it back again, but that's the beauty of it. One hardly gets to see these films, which are the true gems of Indian cinema. We plan to take 'Maya Miriga' to festivals too," he added.

The 77th Cannes Film Festival begins on May 14 and will continue till May 25.