“Manthan” is a powerful film about the tempestuous winds of change that blow through a village when Dr. Rao (Girish Karnad) an idealistic veterinary surgeon from the city arrives to work with the locals to start a milk cooperative movement. The villagers, half of whom are Dalits, sell their milk to a local businessman Mishraji (Amrish Puri) who cheats them by paying a very low rate for the milk. The village headman (Kulbhushan Kharbanda), an upper caste man, is opposed to the idea as he does not want his higher social status diminished as is Bhola (Naseerudin Shah), the leader of the Dalits. He faces stiff resistance from the village headman (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) and Mishraji, the exploitative dairy owner, insecure about losing their power to a cooperative, Bhola (Naseeruddin Shah), a lower-caste peasant who views the city dweller with suspicion and Bindu (Smita Patil), a feisty milkmaid whose initial misgivings about the doctor blossoms into liking and support for his initiative. His notions of equitable distribution of profits irrespective of class and caste and freedom from exploitative middlemen, churn up a maelstrom of mistrust, anger and resistance among the feudal landlords and the peasants, threatening the deep-rooted social hierarchy based on generations of discrimination.

When Dr. Rao assures fair payment to the villagers for their milk and starts earning their trust, this irks Mishraji who starts plotting against him. The politics in the village escalates and Bhola defeats the Sarpanch in the elections to become the village headman. The sidelined Pramukh conspires with Mishraji against Dr. Rao. Aided by Bindu’s husband, they force her to make an allegation in the Panchayat that Dr. Rao has raped her. Extremely saddened by the turn of events, Dr. Rao decides to complete the remaining work of the co-operative and leave the village. Bhola however carries on the work with the help of villagers, notably Bindu, yielding fruit to the brave efforts of Dr. Rao. The story plumbs the depths of despair as Dr. Rao faces false accusations and village politics, but ends on a high with a glimmering of hope as Bhola and Bindu continue the work begun by Dr. Rao as the idea of the cooperative slowly takes root.