Mantoiyat catches Raftaar

Amarjot Kaur

Like Manto’s stories and its characters, Raftaar’s song, titled Mantoiyat, reflects on the writer’s ideology. Bold and riveting, the rapper questions society and its all-too-acceptable norms. With lyrics that rip open the naked reality of taboos like sex and usage of cuss words, the song targets gender-related issues such as slut shaming, dowry, and patriarchy. Released on September 11, the song has been sung, written and composed by Raftaar and features Nawazuddin Siddiqui in the role of Manto. Manto is a film based on the life of Saadat Hasan Manto, directed by Nandita Das.

Mic Check

Dilin Nair is an Indian music composer and rapper better known by his stage name Raftaar. He was formerly a member of the urban music group Mafia Mandeer, formed by Yo Yo Honey Singh. After a split with Honey Singh, he signed to perform on three records of the Punjabi band RDB. In 2013 he released his debut mixtape WTF Mixtape. Then he started working with Manj Musik of RDB and also worked on his solo career. He won a BritAsia Award for Swag Mera Desi as the Best Urban Song Of The Year" in 2014.

Raftaar released his debut mixtape WTF- Witness The Future in 2013. Swag Mera Desi won Best Urban Song at the Britasia Music Awards in 2014. In 2017 Raftaar debuted in the Bengali music industry through the film One which featured singer Vishal Dadlani and Raftaar. He also produced and rapped a song for the Chaamp soundtrack. Raftaar is currently working on a new project which is a music web series where the artists will have to create a song in 24 hours, the name of the format is Lockdown which will be streamed on Zee5.

Hit list

Bandook (Feat Badshah), Saare Karo Dab, and Mother Nature!

Voice of the people

Flawed and famous

The song is impactful and it talks about society's flaws. It’s quite similar to Kaam 25 from Sacred Games. It makes me feel like I want to know more about Manto. It makes me want to watch the movie too. And it makes me happy that art forms are not shying away from addressing society’s flaws.

Meher Oberoi, City-based musician 

Rooting for freedom

Raftaar, in his verse shows how women are oppressed by the society, especially when it comes to dowry and slut-shaming. It reminds me of Manto and it takes his ideology on a musical dimension! I’m glad that he also talks about freedom of speech and expression. We need more mainstream rappers to sing about such stuff.

Manav Sharma, city-based rapper 

Bold and beautiful 

Wow, it’s a bold song and very refreshing. It reflects on our daily lives. It takes on closed mindsets. Hopefully the language and the sense in which its sung helps people take a second and analyse whether they fall in the category and actually do something about this mediocre school of thought. Kudos to Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Raftaar for this song!

Devanshi Nanda, businessperson