When the almost 50-year-old Manthan (1976) was re-released worldwide the past week, one did not expect millennials and Gen-Z audiences to take any particular interest. After all, milk co-operative societies and their struggle to establish themselves in India’s rural heartland are not things they can relate to, right? So wrong! Movie screens across India reported high footfall on June 1st and 2nd when the restored version of Manthan was released on World Milk Day and as a celebration of its screening at the Cannes Film Festival 2024. 

Watching “Presented by 50,000 farmers of India” as the credits rolled and the favorite milk song for the 90s kids, “Mero Gaam Katha Parey,” played in Dolby Sound, was an experience unlike any other. There were families with parents and grand-parents accompanying their kids and grandkids to see young and now deceased actors Girish Karnad and Smita Patil on screen as they brought alive the time of the dairy revolution in India amid casteism, a huge rich-poor divide, exploitation by the oppressors and the peak of violence and discrimination against the Harijan (formerly known as the untouchables) community.

Manthan is India’s first crowdsourced movie. 50,000 farmers contributed ₹2 each for the making of the film with an ensemble cast of National School of Drama – Amrish Puri, Kulbhushan Kharbandha, Naseeruddin Shah and the lead pair the late Smita Patil and Girish Karnad. The movie is a fictionalized account of India’s move from a milk-deficient country to a surplus milk-production country, mainly credited to the efforts of Verghese Kurien, aka the Milkman of India. 

Directed by Shyam Benegal, the movie follows the struggles of a veterinary doctor, Rao, as he begins his efforts to establish a milk cooperative society in a rural village in Gujarat. His efforts are marred by the conniving tricks of the local dairy businessman Mishra (Amrish Puri) and the oppressor caste village supremo Sarpanch (Kulbhushan Kharbandha).

The movie, however, does not take sides. Early in the movie, Mishra explains how well he knows the dynamics of the village, its people, and their troubles and concerns. He not only buys milk from the villagers but also lends money to them when needed. The villagers are untrusting about Dr Rao and his intentions because he is a city folk. But Mishra comes to his aid, even if it is to warn him. He knows that the village considers city folks to be tricksters and deceivers. Dr Rao understands why the milk cooperative society is a threat to Mishra, but he also appreciates Mishra’s candidness which is a reminder of how the system runs ground, in India’s rural heartland, away from the policymakers’ government buildings. 

But here’s where it all gets interesting. Dr Rao seems unrealistic, as Mishra discussed in the beginning when he mocks the fickle idealism in the youth. But, he does not fight the battles of the villagers. Time and again, he reminds them of their power and unity. He keeps stressing that milk cooperative societies cannot be run by any private entity; it is the people who need to run them. He tells the transformed Bhola that their caste divide has to be bridged by them and that he can’t help them by meddling in their affairs. 

The hardwired caste divide in the village and the deep caste bias of Dr Rao’s wife is a hard rock in the formation of the milk cooperative society. On top of that, the mutual attraction between Dr Rao and Bindu (Smita Patil) is less of a romance and more of a catalyst for the wave of change in the village. Not a hapless woman despite being abandoned by her husband, Bindu helps Dr. Rao understand the village dynamic and the power hierarchy, even though she has to face the impossibility of being with a man like Dr. Rao, who is in complete contrast to her abusive husband. 

Despite the casteism and sexism, the women of the village decide to take matters into their own hands and continue the cooperative society as Bhola leads them to change. The scene of the village women and a young boy following Bhola with the milk produced by his cows to sell to the cooperative society instead of Mishra’s milk business remains with you as the screen goes black. 

Herein lies the optimism of the movie. In the real world, Verghese Kurien’s dream was fruitful. India is the highest milk producer and ranks first globally, contributing 24.64% of global milk production in 2021-22 (Source). Unfortunately, India is far away from bridging the caste and class divide which is what makes Manthan so relatable to the masses five decades after its release. Nevertheless, the screening of Manthan and its worldwide release cements the fact that the once-dubbed “arthouse cinema” can withstand the test of time, if you let the story and the characters win. 

Article Courtesy of Neha Jha

Feature Image Credit to Shyam Benegal via BBC