Finding Manto with Nandita Das

Director Nandita Das tells us how she identifies with the celebrated writer’s dilemmas and convictions

In love with the subject: The director in New Delhi

“His life story resonated with me,” says Nandita Das, as we settle to discuss Manto, her much-awaited film on the life of celebrated writer Saadat Hasan Manto. After a hectic festival circuit and promotions in different parts of the country, she is finally in her city. Fighting fatigue with a plate of fruits, she reminisces, “During college days, I only read his stories. But in 2012, when his birth centenary was being celebrated, I came across his essays. I felt that this man was so modern and found myself on the same wavelength. It is not just honesty and courage, it was how he dealt with the issue of identity, something that I have also grappled with. In his stories, if you change religious identities, the impact would still be the same. He wrote extensively on caste, gender, and nationality, issues that keep us divided even today – creating a sense of us and them.” Manto talked of universal human experience, a thought that shone through Nandita’s directorial debut Firaaq . “I don’t like to be called a female filmmaker. They call Manto, the greatest Pakistani writer, we celebrate him as an Indian writer when the fact is that all his life he fought against labels. Similarly, film people think that I am an activist while activists consider me as a film actress. So, I identified with his state – that I don’t fully belong anywhere.”

Fighting censorship

Like Manto believed that the written word had redemptive power, Nandita says, she has been working to bring change through different creative platforms. “It could be one drop but it has its significance. Since the time of

Fire, I have been fighting different faces of censorship. Today, when Section 377 has been decriminalised, I feel, somewhere its seed was laid when

Fire released. The film brought the issue in public domain. Films like

Bawandar and

Hazar Chaurasi Ki Ma were tools to bring socio-political concerns to the centre.”

Plus, she says, through Manto she is responding to the times we are living in. “Manto was not a social activist. He didn’t join the Progressive Writers’ Movement. He was just trying to present things as they were. And he was being stopped from doing so. Publishers were running away, his friends were deserting him, and he was being called a reactionary. He was alone.” Perhaps, his fault was he did not take the so-called ideological sides. “He used to say that he knows as much about politics as Gandhiji understands cinema despite the fact that he had done a lot of political writing.” His essays addressed to Uncle Sam are full of insight. “He wanted to be honest and bebak (fearless). These are qualities that we all want to have but could not practice because of some fear or the other.” Nandita showed the film to his driver to gauge the reaction of the common man. “He related with his plight and said had he been alive today, he would not have been able to speak even half the truth that he managed in his time.”

Talking of her research, Nandita, who started working on the project four years back, says that it continued till the shoot. She admits that she is not a professional filmmaker. “Both

Firaaq and Manto have come from a deeper concern to tell stories. I have not assisted anybody. I have never gone to a film school. So it could reflect in the craft. So it has been an emotional, socio-political as well as a creative journey.”

There were some disappointments as well as she promised the daughters of Manto, who helped him understand the man, that she would get the recordings of their father’s radio plays from All India Radio. “But I discovered in those days they were broadcast live as there was no recording facility. Similarly, he acted in an Ashok Kumar film called

Aath Din . But it was lost in a fire at Filmistaan Studios.” Sometimes too much research material also becomes a problem. “What you really care about, those things remain. It is never enough, and I didn’t want it to be reduced to a Wikipedia page,” says Nandita. “When I started it was a story of 10 years, from 1942 to 1952. But there was so much to say in 112 minutes that it finally got reduced largely to the period between 1946 and 1950. I feel the level of patience of today’s audience is such that a film should not be more than two-hour-long.”

Those who have read about Manto would be curious to know about his bond with Ismat Chughtai, his familiarity with Nargis and of course his friendship with Ashok Kumar and Shyam. Nandita promises all of them have been touched upon but it is the tumultuous relationship with Shyam that makes an important thread. “It explores why Manto agreed to leave his beloved Bombay. When somebody taunted that a new country was being created for Muslims, he said, ‘if Bombay moves to Pakistan, he would follow.’ So what happened that when others like Sahir Ludhianvi returned, he chose to stay back.”

Nandita is also fascinated by Manto’s feminist streak. “He was a feminist in the true sense. The women in his life played an important role in shaping his writing. Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi once asked him about this ability and he said that to write about a woman you have to become one. It is a big thing. I have often been told to engage with women-centric subjects. I think it is also important to celebrate the few men who have such an empathetic gaze towards women.”

Rich ensemble

Besides emerging talents such as Rasika Duggal as Safia, Taahir Bhasin as Shyam and Rajshri Deshpande as Ismat, the film has a rich ensemble of seasoned actors that include Rishi Kapoor, Gurdas Mann and Paresh Rawal. Writer Javed Akhtar also plays an important role. “See, I have an image of a serious filmmaker but this is a subject that I wanted to take to as many people as possible. These eminent can help in increasing the reach. My aim is not just to win medals in film festivals. I want to take Manto to the people of India, many of them still don’t know what he stood for.” She recalls her first meeting with Rishi Kapoor, who is playing sleazy producer in the film. “He said that he didn’t want to do a guest appearance. I told him it is a small role but need his support to reach more people. He asked what would he tell people. I said tell them that he did it for Manto. He snapped, ‘Why should I tell a lie when I am doing it for you.’” Similarly, she convinced Javed Akhtar to play the role of a principal by telling him that the progressive writer of this generation should be part of a film made on one of the most popular progressive writers of all times. “In fact, I have been told that is the first Hindi film made on the life of the writer. There has been no film on Rabindranath Tagore and Premchand.”

It is difficult to portray the work of a writer visually. Nandita has taken up the challenge by bringing in glimpses of Manto’s fictional works in between his life story. “Of course, interpreting Toba Tek Singh and Thanda Gosht is a big task. I have tried to weave glimpses of five of his stories seamlessly into his story. It was important to showcase the writer’s angst and struggle because in real life he was not that sentimental. There was an egoistic and arrogant side of him as well.” Nandita categorically says that she didn’t want to put him on a pedestal. “Like many of our biopics do. I wanted to show him with warts and blemishes because this is what he himself believed in.”

Over the years, one has noticed that Nawaz’s Urdu diction is not perfect. “We worked on it. We should also remember that Manto’s didn’t speak Lucknowi Urdu. Initially, I wanted to use Punjabi Urdu but then it is not an independent film. It required a significant budget to recreate the period.”

Nawazuddin Siddiqui

We heard that she approached Irrfan for the role as well. “My first choice was Nawaz, but yes, I did consider Irrfan. However, I realised Nawaz has a certain vulnerability that is crucial for the role. The character is egoistic and arrogant but at the same time very sensitive and vulnerable. Manto was bold but he used to get scared by small things. To depict such contradictions, the actor’s own personality shouldn’t overpower the character. In that sense, I found Nawaz more like water, somebody who simply flows into the character. Of course, diction was a concern. At times, he would get irritated as he felt why I was being particular about how each word is said. I explained to him that Manto’s language had a certain rhythm and it breaks if you don’t get the pronunciation right. He worked hard. He carried the spirit of Manto so well that other challenges became minor.”