When Shyam Benegal's Classic Manthan Shone At The Cannes Film Festival 50 Years After Release

Shyam Benegal Death: Just nine days after celebrating his 90th birthday, India's most prolific director passed away. Fondly called Shyam Babu by friends and colleagues, Benegal was a pillar of meaningful cinema of the 1970s and 1980s alongside Sai Paranjpye, Govind Nihalani, Mani Kaul, Saeed Akhtar Mirza and Kumar Shahani. As the legend is no longer with us, let us recall the Cannes Film Festival, where his 1976 masterpiece Manthan took centre stage in the Cannes Classics section.

When Manthan took the spotlight at the 77th Cannes Film Festival

The 77th Cannes Film Festival spotlighted the restored 4K version of Manthan (The Churning), Shyam Benegal’s 1976 film about the creation of India’s first dairy cooperative in a Gujarat village. This Hindi cinema classic was screened at Salle Bunuel. The event was attended by Naseeruddin Shah, Ratna Pathak Shah, Prateik Babbar (son of the late actress Smita Patil), her sisters Anita Patil Deshmukh and Manya Patil Seth, and Verghese Kurien's daughter Nirmala.

The restoration of Manthan used a 35mm camera negative preserved at the National Film Archive of India. The sound was digitised from a 35mm release print owned by the Film Heritage Foundation (FHF), which began the restoration project 18 months ago, funded by the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd.

Benegal's earlier films, Ankur (1974) and Nishant (1976), competed at Cannes. Together with Manthan, they form a poignant trilogy addressing rural distress.

How Manthan was made through crowdfunding?

In 1976, Shyam Benegal, the pioneer of India’s parallel cinema movement, decided to make his third film, Manthan (The Churning), completing his rural trilogy. The film focused on a different kind of churning—one that would bring milk flowing across India. What set it apart was that Benegal funded the film entirely through donations from farmers, making it India’s first-ever crowdfunded movie. 

A total of ₹5 lakh was raised, with farmers contributing ₹2 each. Upon its release, Manthan received widespread acclaim and went on to win two National Awards: Best Feature Film in Hindi and Best Screenplay for Vijay Tendulkar.

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