No censors for Manto

On the eve of Indiarsquos 66th Republic Day theatre person Mohit Sharma performed Saadat Hasan Mantorsquos acclaimed short story Toba Tek Singh that earned him a standing ovation at The Hive in Bandra The story is set about two or three years after Independence in 1947 when the Governments of India and Pakistan decided to exchange Muslim Sikh and Hindu prisoners and revolves around Bishan Singh a Sikh inmate of an asylum in Lahore who is from the town of Toba Tek SinghThe most powerful scene in the play is of Bishan lying down between barbed wire fences ldquoThere behind barbed wire was Hindustan Here behind the same kind of barbed wire was Pakistan In between on that piece of ground that had no name lay Toba Tek Singhrdquo writes MantoClass actldquoAs a nation we have woken up to Mantorsquos writings in the last decade mdash when his works have been widely performed in Indian theatre His writings were way ahead of their time and remain significant today because the issues he talks about in his plays continue to existrdquo says director and actor Mohit SharmaManto is best known for his stories about the partition of the subcontinent immediately after Independence Although he wrote essays screenplays and one novel Mantorsquos meacutetier was the short story He published over 20 collections 600 short stories more than 100 radio plays and essays and several sketches of people that crossed his path Moving from North India he came to Bombay to sell his talents to the movie industry and died at 42 in Lahore after a long struggle with alcohol post the PartitionThe Motley Theatre Group which was started by Naseeruddin Shah and Benjamin Gilani in 1979 has performed Mantorsquos stories extensively ldquoThe origins of theatre lie in storytelling anyway so it isnrsquot difficult to see why his stories work so wonderfully in theatre mdash the construction of the story the unfolding of the drama the power of the descriptions all lend themselves beautifully to being spoken Strangely the few plays he wrote radio plays are not in the same league as his prose writingrdquo shares actordirector Naseeruddin ShahHis wife fellow theatre person Ratna Pathak Shah however believes that not all his stories are suitable for performance but some like Titwal Ka Kutta or Kali Shalwar work well as they are able to capture human relationships in moments of great trauma in the most economical way ldquoWith a few words he can paint the picture of Partition like he does in Siyaah Haashiye I donrsquot know many others who can do thatrdquo she explainsNaseeruddin Shah first heard of Manto mentioned as a writer of smut He encountered his work much later through Siyah Haashiye which he considers the absolute apotheosis of short story writing Pathak Shah remembers her first brush with mantorsquos writings ldquoI had heard the story of Khol Do from a friend when I was about 16 The horrors of the Bangladesh war were still fresh in my mind and the way rape had been used as a weapon of subjugation in that conflict and many others before and after shook me up even in that sketchy telling But when I read it myself some years later the story shattered me with the raw power of his storytellerrsquos craftrdquoA scene from Mohit Sharmarsquos adaptation of Saadat Hasan Mantorsquos short story Toba Tek SinghMumbai based theatre group JashnEQalam does dramatic readings of some of Mantorsquos work Group member KC Shankar echoes Pathak Shahrsquos thoughts ldquoHe had the gift of seeing people for what they were His stories treated the pimp and prostitute alike and sometimes as more human because they survive in spite of all that they endure That compassion leads to drama He made the audience a part of the plot made you laugh and then reminded you that donrsquot laugh that character is you The end of each of his stories is a sledge hammerrdquoA scene from Motleys Ismat Manto Haazir HaildquoHe goes where I donrsquot want to he tells me about people that I pretend donrsquot exist he pulls me into situations that I pray I never have to witness in life and in doing so he acts as the conscience of our society mdash itrsquos not a comfortable position to take and he suffered because he saw clearly and spoke so fearlessly No other writer of his generation lived on the edge as he did and paid the kind of price he didrdquo reminds Pathak ShahMotleyrsquos Ismat Manto Haazir Hai at PrithvildquoMantorsquos writings have the necessary conflict a human touch and shades of grey required for a good playrdquo feels Iqbal Niyazi of Kirdaar Art Academy which has staged Mantorsquos lesserknown works like Teen Khamosh Auratein and Jeb Katra The academy plans to hold a Manto festival in April where groups from Bhopal Kashmir and other cities will performControversy and MantoIn 2014 Mumbairsquos first Bhendi Bazaar Urdu festival showcased Mantorsquos play Mammad Bhai ldquoWe couldnrsquot have chosen a more apt play Mammad Bhai was an actual character from Bhendi Bazaar in those days He was a goon on the outside but actually shy and cowardly on the inside The character is representative of the sensibilities and aura of the area and the characters are threedimensional typical of Mantorsquos workrdquo reveals Zubair Azmi director of the Bhendi Bazaar Urdu Theatre FestivalJashnEQalam does dramatic readings Pic courtesy Labony Kaushal The HiveldquoThe prescience of Mantorsquos vision troubled those who considered any criticism of Partition to be blasphemy and the fact that he didnrsquot shy away from dealing directly with sexual issues and didnrsquot pull his punches when it came to satirising our hypocrisies made him an easy targetrdquo Shah points out ldquoWe have had irate members of the audience saying that Bu was obscene when we did it in Mumbai in 2004 I can only imagine what a furor he must have caused when he wrote of prostitutes and pimps rapists and madmen exploiters and the exploited in the most compassionate way possible It is a feat which few writers have accomplished anywhere in the worldrdquo shares Pathak ShahMammad Bhai performed at the Bhendi Bazaar Urdu festivalActordirector Nandita Das who is directing a film on Mantorsquos life says ldquoHe remained defiant after being tried for obscenity If you cannot bear my stories then this is an unbearable time he said He neither judged nor pitied his characters but simply wrote with unadorned honesty about the world he shared with them lsquoI am no sensationalistrsquo he wroterdquoNandita Das with Mantorsquos daughtersldquoThere was nothing subtle about Mantorsquos subjects He was a dramatic writer and the issues he addressed in his writings like hypocrisy in the film industry suppression of sexuality and religious fundamentalism still remain and that makes his works relevant even todayrdquo believes Urdu theatre veteran Tom Alter who performed a dramatic reading titled Manto aur Ghalib Ek Guftagu from Rabishankar Balrsquos Dozakhnama The story is a conversation between Mirza Ghalib and Sadaat Hasan Manto in their gravesFilmmaker Kabir Chowdhary who directed a short film based on Mantorsquos stories sums it up nicely ldquoMantorsquos stories make for great adaptations for theatre and cinema because they deal with the fringe elements of society and characters that every artiste would find intriguingrdquoNOTE Mumbai has been referred to as Bombay to maintain continuity of the time when Manto lived in the city