“Manthan” team walks the red carpet at Cannes Film Festival

The restored version of Shyam Benegal’s “Manthan”, a landmark film from 1976, was screened at the Cannes Film Festival in France on Friday night.

The movie chronicles the beginnings of an extraordinary dairy cooperative movement that transformed India from a milk-deficient nation to the world’s largest milk producer. On Friday, Jayen Mehta, MD of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) led the “Manthan” team 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 the legendary Dr. Verghese Kurien, Father of the White Revolution), Dr. Anita Patil Deshmukh and Manya Patil Seth ( sisters of Smita Patil). A team from Film Heritage Foundation that restored the film was also present.

The film was restored at Prasad Corporation Pvt. Ltd.’s Post – Studios, Chennai and L’Immagine Ritrovata Laboratory, in association with GCMMF, stated an official release. Manthan was restored using the best surviving elements: the 35 mm original camera negative preserved at the GCMMF-National Film Archive of India and the 35 mm release print preserved at 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 was done at Prasad under the supervision of L’Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna, the grading, sound restoration and mastering was done at the lab in Bologna, the release added.

• Also read: GCMMF to invest ₹11,500 crore to expand operations across six states: MD 

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