Cannes: Naseeruddin Shah-Prateik Babbar-Ratna Pathak Shah attend 'Manthan' screening
Veteran actors Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna Pathak Shah, along with Prateik Babbar were among the most notable Indian attendees at the Cannes Film Festival on Friday. They joined Dr. Verghese Kurien's daughter Nirmala Kurien and Amul MD Jayen Mehta on the red carpet for the screening of Shyam Benegal's Manthan. The screening took place during a prestigious gala at Salle Bunuel. Taking to its official Instagram account, Amul India shared glimpses of the event.
'Manthan': A tribute to India's White Revolution
Manthan is based on the pioneering milk cooperative movement of Dr. Kurien, known as the father of the White Revolution in India. The film was produced by five lakh dairy farmers of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which markets its products under the Amul brand. Remarkably, this Gujarat-set movie was entirely crowdfunded by 500,000 farmers who donated ₹2 each. It's streaming on ZEE5.
Shah was overwhelmed with the love at Cannes
'Manthan' celebrated for its national and international acclaim
Manthan won two National Film Awards in 1977: for Best Feature Film in Hindi and for Best Screenplay, penned by Kurien and Vijay Tendulkar. The film also represented India at the 1976 Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film category. The Cannes premiere of the restored version of Manthan was attended by Shah, Patil's family, the film's producers, and Shivendra Singh Dungarpur from the Film Heritage Foundation.
'Manthan is very close to my heart...': Benegal
The 89-year-old Benegal expressed his joy over the film's screening at Cannes. The filmmaker stated, "I was absolutely delighted when Shivendra told me that Film Heritage Foundation was going to restore Manthan in collaboration with the Gujarat Milk Marketing Federation Ltd." "Manthan is a film that is very close to my heart as it was funded by 500,000 farmers and was instrumental in the growth of an extraordinary cooperative movement."
Indian films dominating Cannes this year
A restored Manthan—starring Babbar's late mother Smita Patil—is the only Indian selection under the Cannes Classic section this year. Patil and Shah aside, other notable actors in Manthan include Girish Karnad, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Mohan Agashe, and Amrish Puri. Besides Manthan, several other Indian films are making waves at Cannes. These include Payal Kapadia's All We Imagine As Light, Sandhya Suri's Santosh, Chidananda S Naik's Sunflowers Were The First Ones to Know, Maisam Ali's In The Retreat, and Mansi Maheshwari's Bunnyhood.
