Manjhi: The Mountain Man

"Manjhi - The Mountain Man" takes you through the painful journey of a so-called low caste Bihari who takes on a mountain to avenge his wife's death.

Story: Based on a true story, the movie depicts how, the determined Dashrath Manjhi carved out a road through a mountain using only hammer and chisel in spite of all the bashing received from the fellow villagers (including his father), conspiracies by the village head to stop him and fake promises by the government. In the backdrop, the movie spends some significant time in the build up of the entire story, which is the life of Dashrath Manjhi before the incident - introducing the audience to the rampant and barbaric view of caste based discrimination in Bihar during 50s and 60s, which is prevalent to some extent even today, not just in Bihar but across India. The story is extremely well written and thoroughly researched. It is a story that deserved to be told to the entire country.

Acting: Apart from Nawazuddin Siddiqui, the movie doesn't boast of any big names. However, with the support cast of NSD stars - (late) Ashraf Ul Haq and Pankaj Tripathi - and the promising Radhika Apte, acting is one of the strongest departments of the movie. Their hard work behind projecting the characters is evident and the Bihari accent never sounds taught. The dialog delivery is impeccable and does great justice to the writer who wrote them. Some of the dialogs are very profound and will keep you pondering over it. A special mention for Radhika Apte who has rose like a phoenix through some of her recent performances in short movies - That Day After Every Day and Ahalya - and upped the benchmark in Manjhi, complementing and competing with Nawazuddin, in terms of acting.

Direction: Ketan Mehta has done a stupendous job in terms of ensuring the movie doesn't lose momentum at any point of time. The flow of the story moves back and forth between the years before his wife's death and after the death. But never, for once, it loses audience attention - full marks to the editing team for that. Some of the scenes are a complete surprise in terms of conceptualization and executed to perfection. His depiction of the socio-political scenario in Gehlaur during 50s and 60s through various incidents that Dashrath Manjhi and his wife encounter shows the depth of research that has went before shooting the movie. Some of the scenes are gruesome (even though a reality at that time) and makes you cringe. At one point of time, it reminded me of Prisoners which had a similar aura.

The Mountain: I would also add the "mountain" to the list of characters as the movie also portrays how its relationship with protagonist evolves over a period of time. Although the movie celebrates the victory of a man over a mountain, it also portrays Manjhi's relationship with the mountain and its evolution from his childhood till he carves out the road through it.

Overall: Overall, the movie is a must watch. It shows what strong determination can achieve against all odds.

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...

Biopics are gaining popularity in Indian Cinema as it tells the true incident of a person or event portrayed on the silver screen. With Dirty Picture, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag and now Manjhi-The Mountain Man following the trend, it is thoroughly inspiring and motivating. True to its hype, Manjhi-The Mountain Man lives up to the reputation and gives you hard-hitting drama with realistic views on life.

Manjhi – The Mountain Man is a true story of guts and glory of Dashrath Manjhi who took 22 years to break a mountain to carve a road for his village – Gehlor in Gaya district of Bihar, India.

It takes nerve of steel to make biography of not-so-famous personality who took 22 years of his life to break a mountain. After failure of Rang Rasiya, legendary film maker Ketan Mehta is back with a bang. The director who gave us some great films like Mirch Masala and Mangal Pandey takes a dig into another true story of a forgotten hero and we are not complaining at all. The movie begins with Manjhi loosing his wife as he blames the gigantic mountain for her death. The movie goes into a flashback mode showing his transformation from an innocent kid to a trouble-maker youth. Chance to meet his girlfriend changes him completely.

Couple of scenes will steal the thunder – The chemistry between Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Radhika Apte, the transformation from loyal husband to obsessed old man and the well-executed climax scene. Hats off to Ketan Mehta and team ( Shahzad Ahmad for doing research and dialogue and Rajbali Anjum for the script) for standing out in the crowd. Screenplay loses the focus and too much of flashback will confuse you but the hiccups are only short-lived. Editing by Pratik Chitalia is good. Art direction by Nitin Chandrakant Desai is mind- blowing. Cinematography by Rajeev Jain is eye-catching. Nawazuddin Siddiqui is magnificent. He is probably one of the few actors who goes deep-diving into the any character with aplomb. Certainly an award wining performance from him. Radhika Apte is getting better with each. She emotes expressively. Rest of the star cast do justice to their role

Manjhi – The Mountain Man has cult status written all over it. It is definitely worth watching thanks to the stupendous performances by Nawazuddin Siddiqui, superb direction and astounding background score. Excellent 4.5/5

– Ketan Gupta

Manjhi : The mountain man carried only by Nawazuddin. The films deals with a guy who breaks the mountain to take revenge for his wife's death. This film has lack of emotions and the intensity which it needed the most for this kind of script. Manjhi doesn't hit at the right spot of the audiences. As Manjhi breaks the mountain without anyone's help same as Nawazuddin carries the whole film on his shoulder with his sheer brilliant acting. Manjhi is the sum up of all his previous work. His acting is the only thing which kept me hooked till the climax. He just not only played Manjhi but he also lived the character. Radhika Apte in a small but a powerful role left an strong impact on the audiences. She played the role of Phaguniya wonderfully. It was delighted to watch her on screen. The first half of the movie was brilliant but the climax was stretched unnecessarily. Background score and other technical aspect was good especially the screenplay of the film. The director's work is magnificent in the film but Don't get any high expectation from the movie just go for Nawazuddin and to watch his one of the best performances till date.

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.