Katha Kathan’s ‘The Other Side of Manto’ explored the lighter shades of the mercurial author. The initiative is part of a bigger project that has undertaken to revive regional languages at a time when globalisation has led many to adopt languages not their mother tongue.
The readings on Friday were in Urdu and covered a range of Manto’s works. Before the readings started, Jameel Gulrays, founder of the initiative, said: “I am not going to read Toba Tek Singh , or Thandi Gosht, or any of his popular works. Those have a place of their own. Today’s stories see a side of Manto that is seldom spoken of: his lighter side.”
What followed was a journey through the lighter shades of Manto, from the very domesticated Lanat Hai Aisi Dawa Par and Sone ki Angoothi , to the pensive Deewana Shayer , set 16 years after the massacre in Jallianwala Bagh as a wake-up call to the Indian middle class to join the freedom struggle, andthe light-hearted but poignant Phooja Haraam Da .
The performers for the evening included Madhavi Ganpule, Rajesh Jha, Sumanto Bhattacharya, and Jameel Gulrays himself. They were picked from every walk of life, the only requirement being a general love for the mother tongue. “Anybody can join our organisation, does not necessarily mean you have to be trained to speak or perform in a language. Our goal is to create an interplay within the regional languages, be it Oriya or Tamil or Marathi; we are interested in your engagement with a particular language,” Gulrays said.
The evening also saw brand consultant and budding Urdu poet, Anand Halve launching his book, Musafir Huun Yaaro , which was translated from its original Devanagari script to Urdu by Jameel Gulrays himself. The book is a look at Halve’s life journey taking on themes close to his heart.
Katha Kathan’s next show on May 13 will feature Rabindranath Tagore and Manto and is titled ‘Tagore and Manto in a Medley of Languages’.
The event will centre around dramatised readings of Tagore’s Kabuliwala and Manto’s Tarraqi Pasand .
The writer is an intern with The Hindu
