Manjhi: The Mountain Man (2015)

Using only a hammer and a chisel, a man spends twenty-two years carving a road through a treacherous mountain.

Director:

Ketan Mehta

Writers:

Shahzad Ahmad (research and dialogue), Mahendra Jakhar (screen play by)

Stars:

Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Radhika Apte, Ashutosh Acharya

Top Rated Indian Movies #132 | 2 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Nawazuddin Siddiqui	...	Dashrath Manjhi
Radhika Apte	...	Phaguniya(Manjhi's Wife)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ashutosh Acharya	...	Photographer
Shahzad Ahmad	...	Gopal
Aishwarya Arora	...	Young village girl
Suraj Bajjua	...	Forest officer
Vishwa Bhanu	...	Clerk
Ravi Bhushan	...	Trader
Anil Chaudhary	...	Police Officer
Abhishek Chauhan	...	Villager 3
Samvedna Anish Choudhary	...	DD news Reporter
Tigmanshu Dhulia	...	Mukhiya
Gaurav Dwivedi	...	Alok Jha a journalist
Amar Gaikwad	...	Villager 1
Vijay Gupta	...	Tea stall owner

Storyline

Dashrath Manjhi was a poor man from the lowest of the low castes, living in a remote village cut off from the world by a rocky mountain range. Life for him was a daily struggle for survival. He loved his wife, Phaguniya, beyond belief. One day, while climbing the mountain to bring him food, his wife slipped, fell and died. Overwhelmed by grief, Dashrath decided to carve out a path through the mountain, so that no one else would suffer his fate. For 22 years, all by himself, with just a hammer and a chisel, he hammered away at the rocks, till the path was carved out from the mountain.

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Plot Keywords:

mountain | chisel | hammer | based on real person | love | 

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Taglines:

The Man Who Broke A Mountain For Love

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Genres:

Adventure | Biography | Drama

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Certificate:

TV-14

Did You Know?

Trivia

A preview copy of the film was illegally released onto various peer-to-peer sharing sites on August 10, 2015, 10 days prior to its worldwide premiere. Days later, actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui who portrays the titular character in the film claimed that the by then heavily pirated preview was, in fact, a rough cut and not the final, theatrical version.

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Goofs

Indian railway coaches at the time of Manjhi were maroon in color and had no bars on windows.

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Quotes

Dashrath Manjhi: The wound is in the heart!
[pause]
Dashrath Manjhi: Won't heal until its broken.
[Pointing to the hill]

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Connections

Referenced in Freaky Ali (2016)

User Reviews

It is definitely worth watching thanks to the stupendous performances by Nawazuddin Siddiqui, superb direction and astounding background score.

Biopics are gaining popularity in Indian Cinema as it tells the true incident of a person or event portrayed on the silver screen. With Dirty Picture, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag and now Manjhi-The Mountain Man following the trend, it is thoroughly inspiring and motivating. True to its hype, Manjhi-The Mountain Man lives up to the reputation and gives you hard-hitting drama with realistic views on life.

Manjhi – The Mountain Man is a true story of guts and glory of Dashrath Manjhi who took 22 years to break a mountain to carve a road for his village – Gehlor in Gaya district of Bihar, India.

It takes nerve of steel to make biography of not-so-famous personality who took 22 years of his life to break a mountain. After failure of Rang Rasiya, legendary film maker Ketan Mehta is back with a bang. The director who gave us some great films like Mirch Masala and Mangal Pandey takes a dig into another true story of a forgotten hero and we are not complaining at all. The movie begins with Manjhi loosing his wife as he blames the gigantic mountain for her death. The movie goes into a flashback mode showing his transformation from an innocent kid to a trouble-maker youth. Chance to meet his girlfriend changes him completely.

Couple of scenes will steal the thunder – The chemistry between Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Radhika Apte, the transformation from loyal husband to obsessed old man and the well-executed climax scene. Hats off to Ketan Mehta and team ( Shahzad Ahmad for doing research and dialogue and Rajbali Anjum for the script) for standing out in the crowd. Screenplay loses the focus and too much of flashback will confuse you but the hiccups are only short-lived. Editing by Pratik Chitalia is good. Art direction by Nitin Chandrakant Desai is mind- blowing. Cinematography by Rajeev Jain is eye-catching. Nawazuddin Siddiqui is magnificent. He is probably one of the few actors who goes deep-diving into the any character with aplomb. Certainly an award wining performance from him. Radhika Apte is getting better with each. She emotes expressively. Rest of the star cast do justice to their role

Manjhi – The Mountain Man has cult status written all over it. It is definitely worth watching thanks to the stupendous performances by Nawazuddin Siddiqui, superb direction and astounding background score. Excellent 4.5/5

– Ketan Gupta

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi

Release Date:

21 August 2015 (India)

Also Known As:

Манджхи: Человек горы

Filming Locations:

New Delhi, Delhi, India

Box Office

Budget:

INR80,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

National Film Development Corporation of India (NFDC), Viacom18 Motion Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

120 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1