When the screen at hall number 9 lit up with the film certificate of a 48-year-old movie, voices became gasps at PVR in Thiruvananthapuram. One line in the opening credits brought the first applause: Movie presented by 50,000 farmers of India (each of whom contributed Rs 2 each). 

Manthan, the 1976 film of Shyam Benegal with a cast you could write books about (and people have), was restored and premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, and later screened across theatres in India over a weekend. Those who had watched the original release in 1976 and the younger audience, passionate enough to appreciate the art and artists of the time, cheered the film for many reasons.

This was a film that tried to show the real life struggles of setting up the milk cooperative societies in the villages of India, inspired by the milk revolution headed by the late Verghese Kurian. 

This was also a film of many stars-in-the-making. It opens with Girish Karnad squinting at the sun as he hops off the train to a Gujarati village. He plays the veterinarian charged with setting up the society there, leading a team that includes Mohan Agashe and Anant Nag. Apart from the hostility of the privileged caste traders who are unhappy about losing their monopoly of the milk business (Amrish Puri playing his trademark role of the cunning villain), the cooperative society men also had to convince the untrusting villagers. 

When Girish Karnad enters the village, more familiar faces emerge. Hoots were heard in the movie hall as Smita Patil stepped out of the darkness of her thatched hut to tell off the city sahib (Girish) “stealing” her buffalo’s milk. The poor vet is caught in a scuffle as more villagers gather around, and among them, almost unnoticeably flashes the face of young Naseeruddin Shah in a farmer’s turban. Both he and Smita play members of an oppressed caste, not taking the ill-treatments meted out by the privileged men without a fight.

Their characters are rooted, not polished for a star. Girish, playing the idealistic doctor, does not go out of his way to save the exploited, but only tells them to fight it themselves. It can be construed as his way of nurturing independence in them, teaching them what it’s like to have power in their hands. The cooperative society will be yours, not the sarpanch’s or the rich Mishra’s (Amrish Puri), he says. The women melt first, Smita Patil’s toughness simmering as she warms towards the doctor. It is a treat, just watching her.

Naseeruddin as Bhola has a longer arc to cross, transforming from the rebel, untrusty of the city folk, to becoming the biggest supporter of the cause. Emotional and quick-tempered, Bhola explodes with rage when he describes the oppression of his caste by the likes of the sarpanch. Like a true leader, he guides the others to turn away from the oppressors and take control when there is a chance. His words and deeds could reflect those of the many reformers who fought the caste system through the decades, before and after Manthan.

That is another takeaway, the timelessness of the theme, though it is a sad outcome of the unchanging attitudes of the privileged towards the non-privileged, time after time. That the oppressed could still relate to the blatant bias depicted on screen, without having to look too far into the past, is a reality that Manthan should remind you of, and have your heads hang in shame. But Shyam Benegal’s movie, after letting you in on the real world troubles, where nothing comes easy, gives a flicker of hope in the last possible minute, that you preciously wrap up and take home with you.