Manjhi: The Mountain Man

The stage was set, a man against a mountain. The theme itself is a crowd puller. Obviously the movie will be filled with the emotions a soul must have underwent while performing the same task for 22 long years; that too against the acceptance of society. The man must have built a relation with the mountain, not a hateful one, but a relation of mutual respect; that had given him the determination, the perseverance. But surprisingly enough, instead of making this strange relation between a man and a mountain the USP of the movie, Ketan Mehta has made the movie revolve around the love story of Dasharath and Faguniya(His wife). Unnecessary cut-ins of their romance within the remarkable struggle takes the golden patch away from the movie. Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Radhika apte are all very natural.. Scenes like the first meeting of the lead pair gives you a fresh air. Overall I would suggest give it a go, not because the movie is great, but because it's a tribute the mountain man deserves.

The guy has done a great job in portraying a character no other actor (or I should rather say, STAR) in the industry could ever have done. Him an Radhika Apte are becoming my favorite actors the more I see of them.

Navazuddin brings Dashrath back to life, and what a life I must say. Thoroughly inspiring... Never have I seen such characterization and casting in any movies of recent times. Hats off to the direction and cinematographer for such a wonderful job they have done. 10 out of 10. What more could I say? Go watch it yourself..

PS: You would love every inch of the Mountain and every act of the Man.

Expect no grandeur and very un-Bollywood-like. The plot of the movie unfolds quite slowly like a classic movie should be, building up gradually in the first half and then you are so engrossed into the movie, that you hardly realize how quickly the second half passed by. Nawazuddin Siddiqui could have been the only actor at of today who could do justice to this role. Ketan Mehta has made sure that the real touch in this movie sticks as close to the actual incidences and he has succeeded thoroughly. Many filmmakers attempt to use or portray the themes from this part of India (like Amir Khan's PK or Salman Khan's Dabang). One can easily find that genuineness of Bihari culture is so hollow that it brings down the impact of the movie, rather than uplift it. The way all the actors have delivered their dialogues or put on their costumes is phenomenal. Siddiqui's performance is a stand-out and without doubt, it'll a benchmark in Bollywood, IMHO. Craziness of Manjhi is a legacy for Indians and Siddiquit has succeeded in bringing that out on the silver screen.

This is a tale probably since its origin - BOLLYWOOD fails to give the necessary depth, breadth and focus to/on a topic. Whether it is the nation's heroes from Bajirao to Manjhi or it is a war epic, the focus is always on exaggerated display of love and other emotions and the facts are conveniently missed(since it requires more efforts and will). Some points to elaborate :

1. Not a single minute was dedicated to how Manjhi broke the rocks and carved the mountain. Well, he spent nights thinking about the strategy. He used to collect weeds, grass etc., create fire on the rocks wherever possible and suddenly cool them to develop cracks so that they would crumble. The other 5-6 huge rocks he took 1 month each to develop cracks. No effort was made to show these aspects

2. A torture of inept songs and Manjhi's bereaved love ! Just listen to his interviews and one would realize that his wife's death was just a trigger for his journey and the movie shows as if he is doing it only for his love - what a degenerated depiction of a man who had a much deeper and wider understanding of the social and practical problems plaguing the village

3. Manjhi attempted to build a bridge on a nearby river(not shown in the film), walked to Delhi for raising funds(!). He always thought that the whole state needs help and openly said that, yet, the film focuses on his work as a madman, well a madman always has a vision, a plan and a dream. The film comes out short on projecting this

The only savior for the films are its cast's efforts and few facts and dialogues.

Ketan Mehta first messed up Mangal Pandey and now Dashrath Manjhi. Bollywood should needs to seriously alter its approach towards non- fictional works, else, they end up in reducing heroes to some fairy tale stories, rather than concrete examples of success...

probably this dialogue from this movie is enough to describe this masterpiece. Based on the life story of Dasharath Manjhi who was from Bihar,India, cut down a full mountain by his own. U want to know why? Go n watch this master piece Nawazuddin Siddiqui gave his lifetime performance in this movie. though his each n every performance is just awesome but still I have to say that this one is way above other performance We all know that Ketan Mehta is an awesome director & he did justice to his name. Gave another master piece to Bollywood. Music is the below average. Another fault in this movie is slow 1st half. Editing was not so good. run time should have been reduced by 15 Mins or so. Don't miss