The actor-director talks about the film, which recently premiered at the 71st Cannes Film Festival, and how it is relevant to Pakistan.
While Sarmad Khoosat directorial, Manto (2015) is set in post-partition years and chronicles the life of one of the most controversial poets of subcontinent, Saadat Hasan Manto, Nandita Das’ take on the film is a bit different. The upcoming Indian version of the bio-pic, which premiered at the 71st Cannes Film Festival on Sunday, emphasises on the most tumultuous period of the writer’s life.
In a recent interview, director Nandita Das claims that the biopic is not a message-driven film and is in fact about what is happening (in the subcontinent) today.
“Manto is as relevant today as he was during the turbulent times of the Partition,” she said. “The four years that I cover in the film between 1946 and 1950 were the most tumultuous in his life and that of the two countries where he lived – India and Pakistan – making it very interesting and insightful to portray in a film. Also his writings are so powerful and relevant today that his story seemed the best way to respond to everything that is happening in the world.”
The director feels that the partition of India impacted Manto very personally and the four years that have been covered in the film were defining moments for both Manto and for the Indian subcontinent. “The film’s narrative is seamlessly interspersed with some of his most powerful short stories where the lines between his work and his life get increasingly blurred,” she shared.
According to Nandita, no part of human existence remained untouched or taboo for him. “The only identity that mattered to him was that of being a human, and not nationalistic or religious identity. Manto’s faith in the redemptive power of the written word, through the hardest times, also resonates with my own passion to tell stories.”
“His story is relevant both because of its universal nature and on the ground, in our subcontinent, not much has changed since he wrote them,” she added. “We are still grappling with the same issues of freedom of expression and sectarian tensions, still negotiating between modernity and older ways of thinking. Even today our caste, class and religion take precedence over the universality of our human experience.”
Manto features Nawazuddin Siddiqui as Manto, an uncompromising writer who fought all his working life to protect creative freedom. Apart from him, the cast includes Rasika Dugal, Divya Dutta and Tahir Raj Bhasin in pivotal roles.
The film’s teaser was launched a day before the world premiere at Cannes, where Nandita stated, “The idea is to tell a story for audience. We are not putting ‘Manto’ on a pedestal. He was somebody who used to speak the truth despite all challenges he faced. For youth, it is extremely inspirational to see someone like him. I think it’s a film where the audience will be able to take home something and everyone will relate with his personality.”
When asked if Manto will be accepted across the border, the director said, “It’s a story of a human being who happens to be a writer. There is no relation of borders between two countries. It’s a very universal story.”
She further went on to say, “I don’t think the audience from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka will not be able to relate with it; it’s very relatable story. I think everyone will relate with this film on different levels. We are not offending anybody.”
Though the biopic opened to a packed house at Cannes, a release date for Manto has not been set as yet.
