Benegal’s Manthan, restored in Prasad Lab's unit in Chennai, to be showcased at Cannes Classics
The film being presented this year is the 1976 feature Manthan (The Churning), directed by Shyam Benegal.
CHENNAI: Brace yourselves cinephiles, it’s a brilliant hat-trick scored by the nation on the film preservation front. For the third year in a row, the Film Heritage Foundation is presenting a painstakingly-restored Indian classic at the Cannes Film Festival under the Cannes Classics Selection 2024. The film being presented this year is the 1976 feature Manthan (The Churning), directed by Shyam Benegal. The film was restored by Film Heritage Foundation at Prasad Corporation (P) Ltd’s Post – Studios, Chennai, and L’Immagine Ritrovata Laboratory, Bologna, Italy, in association with Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd (or GCMMF, better known as Amul).
One might recall that last year, a restored Manipuri film Ishanhou was showcased in the Cannes Classics section. The movie had previously played in the festival’s 'Un Certain Regard' section in 1991 and its film reels were preserved by the National Film Archive of India. The Manipur State Film Development Society got the film restored through the Film Heritage Foundation & Prasad Film Labs. A year before that in 2022, Prasad Corp’s 600th restored classic, the Malayalam film Thamp (1978) premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.
Manthan was restored using the best surviving elements: the 35 mm original camera negative preserved at the NFDC-National Film Archive of India and the sound was digitised from the 35 mm release print preserved at Film Heritage Foundation. The funding was supported by GCMMF, and the screening of the film will be in the presence of actor Naseeruddin Shah, the family of actress Smita Patil, producers of the film and Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, Director, Film Heritage Foundation.
Inspired by the pioneering milk cooperative movement of Verghese Kurien, the film was written jointly by Benegal and Vijay Tendulkar. It is set amidst the backdrop of the White Revolution of India. The film was entirely crowdfunded by 500,000 farmers who donated Rs 2 each, making Manthan the first crowdfunded Indian film. 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 title song (Mero Gaam Katha Parey) was sung by Preeti Sagar. She won the Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer for that year. The song was later used as the jingle for the TV commercial for Amul. Tweeting about the same, Dungarpur said, “Unbelievable third year in a row at Cannes Film Festival; Film Heritage Foundation is proud to bring the Restoration of Shyam Benegal’s milestone film Manthan produced by 500,000 farmers, who donated Rs 2 to produce this film. I wish Smita Patil was here to see this.”