Mountain man on celluloid

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It was the sweetness in the story that fascinated filmmaker Ketan Mehta to make a film on the love story of Dashrath Manjhi, better known as “the man who moved a mountain for love”. The real story of the man from Bihar was so captivating that Mehta didn’t think twice about making a film on him.

He started working on the project Manjhi, The Mountain Man last year. But before the film could release, there was a court case because of which everything got delayed. A copyright case had been filed against the film’s production unit at the Civil Court, Patna, and there was a stay order on the film’s release. However, the court recently dismissed the petition.
Mehta thinks the entire court case was uncalled for. “It has become a popular folk tale in the area. Everyone knows about it. So, were the entire court case and legal hassles required at all? This is what we argued in the court too and finally the verdict was in our favour,” says Mehta, who adds that since thousands of articles have been written on it and dozens of documentaries have been made on Manjhi, all this information is in public domain. There can be no copyright on information in public domain.
Manjhi was born into a poor labourer’s family in Gahlour village near Gaya in Bihar. His wife, Falguni Devi, died due to lack of medical treatment because the nearest town with a doctor was 70 kilometres away from their village. Since he did not want anyone else to suffer the same fate, he carved a path 360-feet-long, 25-feet-deep in places and 30-feet-wide to form a road through a mountain in the Gehlour hills, working alone day and night for 22 years.
“This inspiring love story got me hooked on to the character Dashrath Manjhi. To me, it is an amazing, inspiring story of passion, love, courage and determination. The road is a monument like Taj Mahal, except that Shah Jahan was an emperor who had 20,000 people working for him while Manjhi worked alone for 22 years,” says Mehta.
The team met his son and the villagers. Most of the movie has been shot in Bihar, in the parts where Manjhi lived. But shooting in the area wasn’t easy. “It was one of the most difficult shooting schedules. The entire crew had to climb up a mountain every day to shoot. We woke up at 3.30 am to climb up the mountain for the shoot,” he shares.
The film stars Nawazuddin Siddiqui, who has become a face of independent/alternate cinema. Mehta says he was the first and perfect choice to play the role of Manjhi. “Nawaz was the perfect choice for the movie and I am glad that he accepted this role. He is a versatile actor. Only he could have done justice to the character of Manjhi.”