Film and Its Use in Enlarging The Movement
Veteran film-maker Shyam Benegal, then an advertising executive whoed Manthan (the churning of the 'milk ocean'). Not able to finance it, Benegal was helped by Kurien who hit upon an idea of getting each of his half a million farmers to contribute a token two rupees for the making of the movie. Manthan hit a chord with the audience immediately when it was shown in Gujarat in 1976, which impressed distributors to release it before audiences, nationwide. It was critically acclaimed and went on to win national awards the following year and was later shown on television to the public.
The movie's success gave Kurien another idea. Like shown in the film, a vet, a milk technician and a fodder specialist who could explain the value of cross-breeding of milch cattle would tour other parts of the country along with the film's prints, to woo farmers there to create cooperatives of their own.
UNDP would use the movie to start similar cooperatives in Latin America.
Read more about this topic: Verghese Kurien
Famous quotes containing the words film, enlarging and/or movement:
“I’ll be right here.”
—Melissa Mathison, U.S. screenwriter, and Steven Spielberg. ET, ET The Extra-Terrestrial, saying goodbye to Elliot as he touches Elliot’s forehead—ET’s final words in the film (1982)
“to fasten into order enlarging grasps of disorder, widening
scope, but enjoying the freedom that
Scope eludes my grasp, that there is no finality of vision,
that I have perceived nothing completely,
that tomorrow a new walk is a new walk.”
—Archie Randolph Ammons (b. 1926)
“I am a writer and a feminist, and the two seem to be constantly in conflict.... ever since I became loosely involved with it, it has seemed to me one of the recurring ironies of this movement that there is no way to tell the truth about it without, in some small way, seeming to hurt it.”
—Nora Ephron (b. 1941)