Manto

Manto Story: The biographical drama chronicles the life and times of celebrated and controversial Urdu short story writer Saadat Hasan Manto.

Manto Review: Writers are often a lonely lot who find solace in their fictional stories and characters that strangely mirror reality. They belong to a world of their own even when swamped by people, thus struggling to juggle their parallel lives. Celebrated Urdu poet and author Saadat Hasan Manto found the world of fiction more real than the world around him and yet his fierce imagination thrived on the bitter realities he witnessed. As American author Jessamyn West once said, “Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures.”

Actress-filmmaker Nandita Das brings this simmering disconnect, that Manto felt at the time with grave sincerity. She chronicles his seething unrest and emotional turmoil on being silenced and censored, something he fought against all his life. Her clever writing subtly weaves his hard-hitting thoughts (and short stories) on the India-Pak partition, patriarchal mind-set, religious intolerance, love for Bombay and the trauma of those stigmatised by the society into the storyline. Kartik Vijay's cinematography and Rita Ghosh's production design, recreates the pre-independence and post-independence era masterfully. And last but not the least, one of the finest talents of Hindi cinema, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, stirs your conscience by breathing life into his conflicted central character.

However, replete with underlying tragedy, a rather staid narrative struggles to showcase the various facets of Manto’s fiery personality. What you eventually get is a disjointed montage of the controversial events in Manto’s life instead of an actual insight into his life beyond his literary work. The biopic manages to hit the nail on the head for a few instances especially when it comes to the immediate repercussions of partition. But for most part, it feels unengaging, quite contrary to Manto’s provocative and unputdownable writing. Also, those familiar with Manto’s oeuvre are more likely to connect the dots and the minutiae of Manto’s upheaval as portrayed in the film as it relies a lot on ambiguity.

Nandita Das tries to get into the mind of Manto to understand him as a person and she succeeds to a certain degree. However, you wish the film explored his psyche more than the events leading up to his doom — alcohol addiction, self-destructive loneliness, financial crisis, and longing for his friends and a place he called home. Manto is an authentic but jaded observation of a man who defied rules, challenged the status quo and changed the way one looked at life. Watch it for the director's flawless interweaving of Manto's poignant writing into her script and watch it for the words — spoken and unspoken.