Manthan, also released under the translated title The Churning, is a 1976 Hindi film directed by Shyam Benegal, inspired by the pioneering milk cooperative movement of Verghese Kurien, and written jointly by him and Vijay Tendulkar.

Aside from the great measurable success that this project was, it also demonstrated the power of "collective might" as it was entirely crowdfunded by 500,000 farmers who donated Rs.

[9] [10][11] Dr. Manohar Rao, a young veterinary doctor with his team of Deshmukh, Chandravarkar, and others comes to a village in Kheda district, Gujarat.

The village is inhabited by poor people whose chief occupation seems to be cattle-rearing and producing milk, which they sell to a local dairy owner Mishra.

As Dr. Rao and his team grapple with village politics, rigid casteism, and general distrust of the village folk, they face planned hostility from the local Harijan community's leader Bhola who harbours deep anger and resentment against the higher caste Sarpanch (Panchayat Head).

The film traces a small set of poor farmers of Kheda district in Gujarat who had the vision and foresight to act in a way that was good for the society and not for the self alone.

Under leaders like local social worker Tribhovandas Patel, who took up the cause of the farmers, lead to the formation of Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers' Union.

The screening was attended by Naseeruddin Shah and his wife Ratna Pathak, Shyam Benegal and Smita Patil's son, Prateik Babbar.