Manthan (The Churning) Blogcast

I still remember those Sunday evenings when we would all huddle together before the TV for the biggest even of the week – the Sunday evening movie on the national broadcaster Doordarshan. In memory of that anxious waits, and the Monday discussions at school about the action sequences (and the few by-our-standards steamy scenes), I am putting up the first feature film blogcast on this blog*. But there are no power packed action scenes, nor arousing bedroom (or wherever) activity. What is there is the craftsmanship of Shyam Benegal, the sublime Smita Patil, the natural Naseeruddin Shah and the guru Girish Karnad.

Manthan (1976) was sponsored by 500,000 farmers of Gujarat, members of the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation, the first instance of mass cooperative film financing in India. Thanks to the people at Amul for making the movie available online through Amul.tv.

To view the movie online click on the links below:

[Format wmv | Runtime 02:08:00]

Part I
Low 56 kbps
Medium 128 kbps
High 256 kbps

Interval/Intermission

Part II
Low 56 kbps
Medium 128 kbps
High 256 kbps

*Courtesy and copyright Amul