Film Heritage Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation founded by filmmaker and archivist Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, has joined hands with Gujarat Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. to restore veteran Indian filmmaker Shyam Benegal’s National Award-winning film Manthan that starred the late iconic film actress, Smita Patil.
As Amul marks its golden jubilee this year, the 4K restoration of the 1976 film has been selected for the official red-carpet world premiere at the 77th Cannes Film Festival in May.
Mathan is the only Indian film to be selected under the ‘Cannes Classic’ section of the festival this year. Presenting at Cannes Film Festival for the third time in a row, Film Heritage Foundation has previously premiered Thamp̄ (2022) and Ishanou (2023) at the prestigious film festival.
Manthan, a fictionalised version of the beginnings of the extraordinary dairy cooperative movement that transformed India from a milk-deficient nation to the world’s largest milk producer inspired by Dr Verghese Kurien, the Father of the White Revolution, is also India’s first crowd-sourced film produced by 5,00,000 dairy farmers who contributed INR 2 each towards the production of the film.
Film Heritage Foundation used the best surviving elements for the restoration – the original 35 mm original camera negative and the 35 mm release print preserved at the NFDC – NFAI. Unfortunately, the sound negative was not available. The sound was digitised from the 35 mm release print preserved at Film Heritage Foundation. The film elements were repaired by the Film Heritage Foundation conservators and the scanning was done in Prasad Lab in Chennai. They found that due to the deterioration of the print, there were vertical green lines on many parts of the film. While the scanning and digital clean-up was done at Prasad under the supervision of L’Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna, the grading, sound restoration and mastering was done at the lab in Bologna. Both Shyam Benegal and Govind Nihalani, the cinematographer of the film, have been involved in the restoration of the film.
The film premiere will be attended by Naseeruddin Shah, the family of the late Smita Patil, the producers of the film and Film Heritage Foundation’s Shivendra Singh Dungarpur.
Shyam Benegal states, “Govind Nihalani and I have been following the progress of the restoration closely and I am amazed by the meticulous approach to the restoration.”
Naseeruddin Shah states, “I started my career as an actor with Nishant followed by Manthan, both directed by Shyam Benegal. Manthan was a runaway success when it was released almost 50 years ago and it is a film that is remembered even today. I remember that during the shooting of Manthan, I lived in the hut, learnt to make cow dung cakes and milk a buffalo. I would carry the buckets and serve the milk to the unit to get the physicality of the character. I am so glad that the Film Heritage Foundation has restored this remarkable film and that this small film made with the support of the farmers has been restored with so much love and care. It is thanks to the persistence, hard work and efforts of Film Heritage Foundation that the film will be premiered in its second life, as it deserves to be, at the Cannes Film Festival and I am so glad that I will be there to present it myself.”