‘Manto wrote with sensitivity’

Shoma A. Chatterji

After her first directorial film Firaaq (2012) actor-director Nandita Das returns after a hiatus with her second directorial film Manto. A biopic on Saadat Hasan Manto, one of the most controversial writers in India, who migrated to Pakistan and died at a relatively young age, can be a challenge for any filmmaker. But Nandita Das decided to pick up the gauntlet to make a full-length feature film on Manto. On what motivated her to make the film, Das says, “My focus is on Manto’s most tumultuous four years in two cities, Bombay and Lahore. I first read Manto in college. He wrote with a rare sensitivity and empathy for his characters. I wanted to make a film on any of his short stories long ago but somehow, could not do it then. After I read his essays, I was more convinced about making this film.”

How many people of generation Y in India are familiar with the name of Saadat Hasan Manto? Only those who like Urdu literature might be familiar with the man and his works. Manto was a Pakistani writer, playwright and author recognised as the greatest writers of short stories in the South Asian history. He produced 22 collections of short stories, one novel, five series of radio plays, three collections of essays, two collections of personal sketches. His best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics. Manto was tried for obscenity six times; thrice before 1947 in British India, and thrice after independence in 1947 in Pakistan, but never convicted.

A partly fictionalised feature film Manto is not a chronologically sequenced account of his life so it really cannot be called a “biopic” in a strict sense. Das admits that she does not like any kind of labelling as she thinks it is limiting for a film and its maker. “The Partition triggered his most powerful writings. Unfortunately, India’s fault lines have not changed much in the 70 years since Manto’s time. More than ever, he remains relevant. Today’s issues of free expression, religious intolerance, jingoism… are all addressed in his writings.”

Das is happy that Manto has been chosen for screening in the Un Certain Regard section that is dedicated to 20 films that tell unique stories in non-traditional ways. In title role of the film is Nawazuddin Siddique, one of the most versatile talents in Indian cinema today. But his looks are distanced from Manto, who is said to have been very handsome. “But he did a significant role in my first film Firaaq when no one knew him at all. I had watched his performance. But even before this, I had seen him perform in a short film called Short Cut and my main cast was decided at once,” says Nandita. She has taken pains to give him a completely new look with a wavy haircut and period pair of glasses that fits him to the T.

Another gifted actor in the film is Chandan Roy Sanyal. Says Chandan, “I am playing another poet, who lived under Manto’s shadow. He was an impressive poet himself who lived in Lahore. It is not a big role footage-wise but Manto has the ingredients of a great film. Das is an accomplished actress herself and brings out a certain sensibility into her direction.” 

About his role in the film, Nawazuddin says, “Manto was an honest man who wrote what he saw. He was transparent and there was no hypocrisy in his life.”

“He thought about things in the 1940s, which we fail to see or think about even today. He spoke and wrote the truth, and truth never gets old. To play him, you have to be truthful too,” he sums up.