Manjhi – The Mountain Man

In the 1960s Dashrath Manjhi (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) lived in a small village Gehlaur near Gaya, Bihar, India with his family including his wife Phaguniya Devi (Radhika Apte) and his son. There was a rocky mountain near his village that people either had to climb across or travel round to gain access to medical care at the nearest town Wazirganj. 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 Dashrath Manjhi • 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 as Lauki • Ashraful Haque 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 ==

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. Bollywood Hungama gave it 2.5 stars. Shubhra Gupta of Indian Express gave it two stars. == References ==