''Manjhi – The Mountain Man'' is a 2015 Indian

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

-language

biographical film A biographical film or biopic () is a film that dramatizes the life of a non-fictional or historically-based person or people. Such films show the life of a historical person and the central character's real name is used. They differ from docudra ...

based on the life of

Dashrath Manjhi Dashrath Manjhi (14 January 1934 – 17 August 2007), also known as Mountain Man, was a laborer in Gehlaur village, near Gaya in Bihar, India. When his wife died in 1959 due to injury caused by falling from a mountain and due to the mountain h ...

. Manjhi, widely known as the "Mountain Man", was a poor labourer in

Gehlaur Gehlaur is a village located in Muhra Tehsil of Gaya district in Bihar State, India. Notability Gehlaur was the home of the legendary ‘Mountain Man’ Dashrath Manjhi. He was a poor man who worked as a labourer in Gehlaur village. He carved ...

village, near

Gaya Gaya may refer to: Geography Czech Republic *Gaya (German and Latin), Kyjov (Hodonín District), a town Guinea * Gaya or Gayah, a town India *Gaya, India, a city in Bihar **Gaya Airport *Bodh Gaya, a town in Bihar near Gaya *Gaya district, Bi ...

in Bihar, India, who carved a path wide and long through a hill high, using only a hammer and chisel. The film is directed by Ketan Mehta, jointly produced by

Viacom 18 Motion Pictures Viacom18 Studios (Also known as Paramount 18 Studios), a subsidiary of Viacom18 (a Paramount Networks EMEAA and Network18 joint venture) based in Mumbai, is one of the first studio model based motion picture & content production business in Ind ...

and NFDC India. Upon release the film received positive critical acclaim. Nawazuddin Siddiqui enacted the role of Dashrath Manjhi, while Radhika Apte played Manjhi's wife. The film was released worldwide on 21 August 2015. Prior to its release preview copy of movie leaked on the web on 10 August 2015. The Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) cyber police station had registered a case against few accused of leaking the movie. The

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Be ...

State Government declared the film tax-free on 30 July 2015.

Plot

In the 1960s Dashrath Manjhi ( Nawazuddin Siddiqui) lived in a small village

near

, India with his family including his wife Phaguniya Devi ( Radhika Apte) and his son. There was a rocky

mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited Summit (topography), summit area, and ...

near his village that people either had to climb across or travel round to gain access to medical care at the nearest town

Wazirganj Wazirganj (Hindi: वज़ीरगंज, Urdu: ) is a town and a nagar panchayat in Budaun District in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Geography Wazirganj is a historical place from time of *Alha, Udal* This is the oldest temple of Khere ...

. One day Manjhi's wife (when pregnant) fell while trying to cross the mountain and eventually died giving birth to a girl, after which Manjhi decided to carve a road through it. When he started hammering the hill people called him a lunatic but that only steeled his resolve further. After 22 years of back-breaking labour, Manjhi carved a path 360 feet long, 25 feet deep in places and 30 feet wide. Manjhi died in 2007. The film's postscript states that 52 years after he started breaking the mountain, 30 years after he finished and 4 years after his death the government finally made a metalled road to Gehlaur in 2011. He fought with the Indian government for the development of their village and for the availability of hospitals and road.

Cast

* Nawazuddin Siddiqui as

* Radhika Apte as Phaguniya-Dashrath's wife * Sneha Pallavi as Phaguniya's Mother * Tigmanshu Dhulia as Mukhiya (landlord) * Pankaj Tripathi as Ruab (the landlord's son) * Gaurav Dwivedi as Alok Jha (a journalist) *

Urmila Mahanta Urmila Mahanta is an Indian actress. A student of the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, Mahanta appeared in various plays, short films and television series, before making her feature film debut in the critically acclaimed 2012 Tam ...

as Lauki *

Ashraful Haque Syed Ashraful Haq is a former Bangladeshi cricketer. He was the architect of Bangladesh's first ever ICC Trophy victory, over Fiji in May 1979. His 7/23 from 9.2 overs completely destroyed the Fiji middle order, leading Bangladesh to a 22 run w ...

as Magru-Dashrath's father * Jagat Rawat as Shuklaji * Varadraj Swami as Gopal's Father * Deepa Sahi as Prime Minister Indira Gandhi * Prashant Narayanan as Jhumru * Rashaana Shah as Bhanwari

Soundtrack

Critical reception

Sweta Kaushal of Hindustan Times termed the film an inspiring, touching tale of a common man and gave the film 4.5 stars out of 5. Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV gave the film 3 stars. Meena Iyer of Times of India gave it 3 stars. Bollywood Hungama gave it 2.5 stars. Shubhra Gupta of Indian Express gave it two stars.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Manjhi - The Mountain Man 2015 films Films about Indian slavery 2010s Hindi-language films Indian nonlinear narrative films Films about poverty in India Indian films based on actual events Drama films based on actual events Films about social issues in India Discrimination in fiction Films about the caste system in India Films shot in Bihar Films set in Bihar Viacom18 Studios films 2015 biographical drama films Indian biographical drama films