Opinion Manthan at Cannes: Reigniting the spark

Following its restoration to 4K clarity by the Film Heritage Foundation, the 1976 film Manthan, directed by Shyam Benegal, was screened in the Classics section of the ongoing Cannes International Film Festival. The nearly 50-year-old film made a splash, even as Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light is in the running for the Palme d’Or, the first Indian film in 30 years to be in the festival’s main competition. The presence of these two films — made 48 years apart — at one of the most prestigious platforms for cinema presents the opportunity to reflect on the direction that Indian cinema has taken in the intervening years.

Made during one of the most creatively disruptive periods in Indian film history, when filmmakers such as Mani Kaul, Girish Kasaravalli, John Abraham, Adoor Gopalakrishnan and Govind Nihalani were experimenting with story and form, Manthan was remarkable for its idealism and clarity of vision. It was produced through crowdfunding by 5,00,000 farmers of Gujarat, as the opening credits proudly state, becoming an example of cinema’s ability to empower those at the margins. A fictionalised account of India’s dairy cooperative movement, the film dwelt on hierarchies of caste and gender, becoming a timeless commentary on the difficult but valuable work of deepening democracy.

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Has the promise of those exciting years, when the parallel cinema movement explored a range of visions and concerns, been fulfilled? It is often lamented that in the larger story of the Indian film industry, commerce has outweighed art far too often. Such a dismal view has some basis, given the near total disappearance of the parallel movement and the surge of “big budget” films, especially in Hindi cinema, over the last decade or so. Yet, the fact that films like Kapadia’s continue to be made and that smaller films, like Manjummel Boys by Chidambaram, captivate audiences across the country, shows that the spark may be lit again, even if it takes a different form.