The prestigious Cannes Film Festival attracts talented and renowned personalities from all across the globe to celebrate cinema every year. The 77th edition of the ongoing international film festival will witness a significant milestone for Indian cinema as Shyam Benegal’s National Film Award winning project Manthan will be screened today at Salle Bunuel.
Manthan, based on the pioneering milk cooperative movement of Dr Verghese Kurien — the father of the White Revolution in India, starring late actress Smita Patil, is the only Indian film to be selected under the Cannes Classic section of the festival this year. The film also stars Naseeruddin Shah, Girish Karnad, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Mohan Agashe, Anant Nag, and Amrish Puri among others.
Talking about the film’s screening at a platform like Cannes, Shyam Benegal said, “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 that was aimed at breaking the shackles of economic inequality and caste discrimination whilst empowering the farmers.”
The premiere of the restored version of the film at Cannes will be attended by Naseeruddin Shah, the family of late Smita Patil, the producers of the film and Film Heritage Foundation’s Shivendra Singh Dungarpur.