The Churning (1976)
"Manthan" (original title)

Dr.Rao (Girih Karnad) is a Vetinary doc, who comes to this village with the aim of starting a Milk Co-operative society for the welfare of the villagers. But the wealthy businessman ... See full summary »

Director:

Shyam Benegal

Writers:

Kaifi Azmi (dialogue), Shyam Benegal (story),

Stars:

Girish Karnad, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Sadhu Meher

1 win.

Cast

Credited cast:
Girish Karnad	...	Dr.Rao
Kulbhushan Kharbanda	...	Sarpanch
Sadhu Meher
Anant Nag	...	Chandravarkar
Smita Patil	...	Bindu
Amrish Puri	...	Mishraji
Naseeruddin Shah	...	Bhola

Storyline

Dr.Rao (Girih Karnad) is a Vetinary doc, who comes to this village with the aim of starting a Milk Co-operative society for the welfare of the villagers. But the wealthy businessman Mishraji (Amrish Puri) and Sarpanch (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) are unhappy about this. How Dr.rao succeeds in his mission to make the villagers self reliant, with the help of Bindu (Smit Patil) and Bhola (Naseeruddin shah) is worth watching.

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Plot Keywords:

cattle | protest

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi

Release Date:

October 1980 (USA)

Also Known As:

A tej színe

Company Credits

Production Co:

Gujarat Milk Co-Op Marketing Federation Ltd.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

134 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

User Reviews

Extraordinary dramatization of social, economic change

Manthan is an extraordinarily powerful and intense depiction of social change. As it has been 15 years since I've seen this film, my recollection of details may not be completely accurate; but the story tells the struggle of Indian dairy farmers to gain a fairer share of the proceeds of their labor from the larger milk-processing companies to whom they sell their raw milk. While my recollection of factual details about this movie is limited, I do recall vividly the strong emotional and artistic impact Manthan had on me. It should be noted that director Benegal also made Ankur (The Seedling) which, with a completely different story, also incarnates the painful social changes India is undergoing as it moves from a more to a less feudal social structure -- and in both movies dealing with these themes without preachiness or pronounced ideological heavyhandedness.