Manjunath

During his farewell, Tarang and I were discussing the documentary 'India's Daughter'. I asked him to watch Naagesh Kukunoor's 'Lakshmi' and he recommended 'Manjunath'. I watched it on youtube few weeks back. So sorry for such a delayed review but life has been busy. Or rather I have made my life busy. 

Manjunath has been directed by Sandeep Varma and is based on the true life story of Manjunath Shanmugam. 
Manjunath was an IIM-L passout who was killed in U.P while working as a sales officer for a petroleum company in 2005. He is killed while taking a stand against a corrupt dealer.


Manjunath, played by Sasho Satiiysh Saarathy, is a happy go lucky person on campus. He joins a petroleum company and is posted at UP. He belongs to the backward classes and his parents are not very well off. He comes across instances of fuel adulteration by the dealers and tries to stop it. And he is killed.

There is a point in the movie where his parents clearly need the money but he decides to stand up for what's right anyway. It's so much more difficult to be ethical when you need the money and the job. 
Seema Biswas as Manjunath's mother is superb. So is Divya Dutta in a minor role. 

The story is hard hitting since it's true. The only reason the dealer got jailed was because the IIM alumni decided to raise funds to fight for justice. 

There are so many points where the movie drags and stretches un-necessarily. The songs are a drag. It could have easily been shortened by half an hour. I think that's why it didn't too well at the box office. 

Overall, it is a decent movie and should be watched. Manjunath is anyone of us. What would you or I do if we come across unethical practices? Sweep them under the carpet or fight against them? What if we cannot afford to lose our jobs over it?