Name – Dashrath Manjhi. Village – Gehlaur. District – Gaya, Bihar. Year – 1960. We meet him in the opening frame of the film. In blood-soaked clothes we see him screaming in agony and anger as he stands before a humongous mountain accusing it of taking away everything he called his own. He threatens to break it.
In the next scene we see him with his hammer as he tries to make a small dent in that gigantic mountain’s pride. He continues as we take a step back, trying to comprehend the situation. The stubborn mountain stands tall while this lone man, at work with his hammer slowly becomes a tiny speck. Only that he isn’t!
The Man Who Could Move A Mountain
Directed by Ketan Mehta, Manjhi is an ode to that one man who could move a mountain. Fact is stranger than fiction and Dashrath Manjhi did in real life what would otherwise seem like a fantastical work of fiction.
He actually successfully carved out a path through the mountain in his village. All this for love! Manjhi lost his wife to this same mountain. With his raison d’être gone, his sole mission was to see a road connecting Gehlaur to the nearby villages.
It’s a brilliant story and director Ketan Mehta wins half the battle by casting Nawazuddin Siddiqui as the lead.
Nawazuddin becomes Manjhi. There is no other way to put it. From a madly in love young man to a crazy widower trying to come to terms with his wife’s untimely death, he melts into his character with such magic that there is no way of knowing where Nawazuddin the actor ends and Dashrath Manjhi the character begins.
The Acting Prowess Makes This a Must-Watch
The acting department on the whole is in good hands. Radhika Apte, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Pankaj Tripathi and Ashraf ul Haque (Late) ensure that if for nothing else, you must junk the online version and go buy tickets in honour of their acting prowess.
But this is still half the battle won. Ketan Mehta falters thereafter. Even at 124 minutes, Manjhi feels longer. There are portions which drag, scenes that slacken the overall pace and editing which is jerky and bumpy.
In trying to establish Manjhi’s love for his wife, they overdo it. The result is an over dramatised and slightly disoriented narrative.
An Inspiring Tale Let Down by its Own Pace
Dashrath Manjhi’s story is an extremely inspiring tale of grit and passion. The fault, therefore, lies squarely at the door of the director for making it a rather monotonous pursuit of the tale of hardships and obstacles.
Yes we wish that Dashrath Manjhi breaks that mountain quickly – but that has more to do with us running out of patience!
It’s a pity since Manjhi could easily have been great. While it fails to inspire us to the extent it should have, I would still suggest you go watch it. It’s still a story that deserves to be seen. I’ll go with 3 QUINTS out of 5.
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