Manjhi: The Mountain Man

Manjhi - The Mountain Man, directed by Ketan Mehta, is an Indian film based on the true story of Dashrath Manjhi (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), a Bihar villager whose wife died because she couldn't reach medical help in time, having to go around a mountain to reach the nearest hospital; determined that no one else should suffer the same fate, he spent 22 years alone carving a passage through the mountain with only a hammer and chisel. The real passage Manjhi carved cut the distance between two regions from 55 kilometers to 15. The film opened on August 21, 2015; it was a commercial failure but Nawazuddin Siddiqui's transformative performance drew wide acclaim. The film holds a 45 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes. Who it's for: anyone curious about a real man who spent 22 years alone carving through a mountain with only a hammer and chisel after his wife's death, featuring a transformative lead performance. Who it's not for: viewers looking for a commercially successful production, since the film underperformed at the box office.