Manthan has been selected for a Cannes presentation after being restored in Benegal

This year, during Cannes, the restored version of Shyam Benegal’s 1976 film Manthan will be shown in the Cannes Classics section. Naseeruddin Shah, who starred as Bhola in Manthan and started his career with the 1975 Benegal film Nishant (which was in the Cannes competition), will introduce the film on the festival’s red carpet.

 

Manthan serves as a reminder of the power of film worldwide: Benin
“I was overjoyed to learn that the Gujarat Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. and the Film Heritage Foundation would be working together to restore “Manthan,” as Shivendra had informed me.”Manthan” had special meaning for me since it was made possible by 500,000 farmers and played a pivotal role in the development of an amazing cooperative movement that sought to liberate farmers from the oppressive practices of caste and economic inequity. It will serve as a reminder to the world of both the significance of the great Verghese Kurien, the Father of the White Revolution, and the ability of film to effect change.

I have been carefully monitoring the repair with Govind Nihalani, and I am astounded by the methodical approach used to the restoration. Seeing the movie come to life virtually exactly as we created it is amazing.

The Film Heritage Foundation has been restoring films with amazing success. In addition to expertly conserving movies from every corner of India, they are also re-releasing them to the public at international film festivals and theaters, showcasing our distinct cinematic legacy to people throughout the globe today.

I’m delighted to learn that this year’s Cannes Film Festival will host the film’s restoration premiere: Govind Nihalani
It is amazing that “Manthan,” which has been in production for over 50 years, is being restored by the Film Heritage Foundation. Participating in the restoration process has been a really personal experience. It has transported me back to 1976, when the whole unit spent 45 days shooting the movie in the Gujarati hamlet of Sanganva, living as a family.

The fact that we had to utilize a patchwork of various film stock—Eastman and Gevacolor in addition to Kodak—35 mm for the main film and 16 mm for the film inside the film made the filming difficult. I started out as a cinematographer for Shyam Benegal, working on his early feature films as well as commercials. Over the years, our partnership has been really fulfilling in terms of creativity because Shyam includes you as a participant in the film’s creative process rather than simply the cinematographer. The news that the restored movie will have its world debut at this year’s Cannes Film Festival brings me great joy.”

I’m going to Cannes to introduce Manthan: Naseeruddin Shah.My acting career began with Shyam Benegal’s “Nishant,” which I followed with “Manthan.” When it was first published about 50 years ago, “Manthan” was an enormous hit and is still well-known today. I recall living in the hut, learning how to milk a buffalo, and preparing cow dung cakes during the filming of Manthan. To capture the character’s physique, I would bring the buckets and offer the milk to the unit.

I’m overjoyed that the Film Heritage Foundation has lovingly and meticulously restored both this amazing movie and the short film produced with the farmers’ help. The film will make its much-deserved Cannes Film Festival debut owing to the tenacity, diligence, and hard work of the Film Heritage Foundation, and I’m thrilled to be there to give it a personal introduction.

The Film Heritage Foundation has long desired the restoration of a Shyam Benegal movie: Singh Shivendra from Dungarpur
“I am ecstatic to announce that, after “Thamp” in 2022 and “Ishanou” in 2023, Film Heritage Foundation will present a red-carpet global premiere of one of our restorations of an Indian classic at the Cannes Film Festival for the third consecutive year. The Film Heritage Foundation has long wished for the restoration of a Shyam Benegal movie as he is one of India’s most renowned directors and his early work was crucial to the country’s Parallel Cinema movement.

Not only is “Manthan” one of his best movies from that era, but its backstory is even more remarkable: 500,000 farmers gave Rs. 2 to help make the movie, which told the tale of the beginning of the milk cooperative movement and touched on a variety of topics including caste, class, gender, and economic discrimination. The movie had a key role in establishing the movement and its illustrious reputation as well as in educating farmers nationwide about the advantages of the cooperative movement.

Working together with Govind Nihalani and Shyam Benegal to meticulously revive the picture has been an amazing experience, particularly throughout the restoration phase. The story’s potency and the performers’ riveting performances—especially Smita Patil’s—remain powerful over fifty years later. I wish she could have seen the restoration’s brilliance in person.

For the restoration, the Film Heritage Foundation utilized the best remaining components, which were the 35 mm print kept at the NFDC – NFAI and the original camera negative. Regretfully, there was no sound negative available. The sound from the 35 mm print that is kept at the Film Heritage Foundation was digitalized.

The Prasad Lab in Chennai performed the scanning, while the conservators from the Film Heritage Foundation fixed the film components. We discovered that some areas of the film had vertical green lines because of the print’s degradation.

The grading, sound restoration, and mastering were completed in the lab in Bologna, while the scanning and digital clean-up were completed at Prasad under the direction of L’Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna. The movie’s cinematographer, Govind Nihalani, and director of photography Shyam Benegal have both contributed to the restoration of the movie.