Cannes Film Festival screens Shyam Benegal's restored version of Manthan to five-minute standing ovation

Shyam Benegal's Manthan was screened in the Cannes Classics Section. In attendance were Naseeruddin Shah, Ratna Pathak Shah and Prateik Babbar.

The Film Heritage Foundation, a not-for-profit organization founded by moviemaker and archivist Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, returned to the red carpet at Cannes for a third year in a row last night for the world premiere of their restored version of Shyam Benegal’s landmark film Manthan (1976). It screened in the Cannes Classics Section. (Also read: Naseeruddin Shah, Ratna Pathak Shah, and Prateik Patil Babbar attend Manthan screening at Cannes Film Festival)

Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, Naseeruddin Shah, and Prateik Babbar pose on the red carpet at Cannes.(REUTERS)

Indian audiences can watch the brand new restored movie in theaters on World Milk Day falling on June 1, 2024.

Shivendra Singh Dungarpur lead the Manthan entourage on the red carpet along with actors Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna Pathak Shah, Prateik Babbar (actor and son of the late actress Smita Patil), Nirmala Kurien (daughter of Dr. Verghese Kurien), Dr. Anita Patil Deshmukh and Manya Patil Seth (sisters of late actress Smita Patil) and the producer of the film, Dr. Jayen Mehta (Managing Director, Gujarat Co-Operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd.).

Dungarpur said at the inauguration, “It was amazing walking the red carpet third time in a row and presenting another restored classic here in Cannes.”

There was a five-minute standing ovation after Manthan ended.

Manthan’ is 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, Father of the White Revolution. Remarkably, the national award-winning film which enlists the late Girish Karnad, Naseeruddin Shah and late Smita Patil as its star-cast is also India’s first crowdfunded movie produced by 500,000 dairy farmers who contributed Rs. 2/- each towards the production of the film.

The movie was restored by Film Heritage Foundation at Prasad Corporation Pvt. Ltd.’s Post – Studios, Chennai and L’Immagine Ritrovata Laboratory, in association with Gujarat Co-Operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. (Amul), the cinematographer Govind Nihalani and the director Shyam Benegal.

Manthan was restored using the best surviving elements: the 35 mm original camera negative preserved at the NFDC-National Film Archive of India and the 35 mm release print preserved at the Film Heritage Foundation. Portions of the original camera negative had colour fading and variations, green mould, and flicker, while many parts of the 35 mm print had scratches and vertical green lines.

The sound negative had completely deteriorated and could not be used. The sound was digitised from the 35 mm release print. The film elements were repaired by the Film Heritage Foundation conservators and the scanning was done in Prasad Lab in Chennai. While the scanning and digital clean-up were done at Prasad under the supervision of L’Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna, the grading, sound restoration, and mastering were 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.