The traumatic life of Manto on stage
14 May 2012 3:39 AM GMT
When he does not wield a pen, he is Saadat Hasan, just another man pilloried by the wars of survival. The asfana (short story) that keeps him alive hides in his pocket, says actor Ashwath Bhatt, encapsulating the spirit of the legendary storyteller Saadat Hasan Manto in his solo performance, Ek Mulaqat Manto Se, to celebrate the raconteur’s 100th birthday on 11 May.
Bhatt, a veteran stage actor, performed his 90-minute solo act at a unique open-air stage at the Khoj International Artists Association. The monologue combined texts from Manto, Main Afsana Kyun Kar Likhta Hoon, Khol Do, Kal Sawere Jo Meri Aankh Khuli, Toba Tek Singh and Deewaron Pe Likhna.
Ek Mulaqat Manto Se reflects the traumatic life of Saadat Hasan Manto in the context of his emotional and physical uprooting by the Partition that eventually drove him to his death.
Performed in Urdu, the play begins with his days in India at the time of Partition and shifts to Lahore, ‘where he tries to see the new sociopolitical and economic circumstances through the eyes of the common man in the bazaars and neighbourhood’.
Even the local parlance changes with the birth of ‘Zindabad Pakistan’ — a slogan he utters frequently to describe his new homeland.
What holds good in Delhi does not hold good in Lahore anymore, Manto’s daughters (also played by Bhatt) point out to him in the play.
Manto moved to Lahore around 1948 after leaving a steady job as a writer for the Urdu service of All India Radio in Delhi. In Lahore, his apartment was located at the Lakshmi Mansions near the Main Mall. The neighbourhood was inhabited by intellectuals, who were all said to be ‘destined to play strategic roles in the new Pakistan’.
The atmosphere might have been congenial for intellectual progress, but Manto did not know how to earn enough to support his family of four. He wrote his afsanas with zeal but the money was inadequate. It also marked the beginning of his decline. The itinerant state of Manto’s physical state and his intellectual flowering is captured with brilliance by Bhatt who converts one of the smaller courtyards of Khoj into a busy Lahore mall.
Manto ruminates upon his life, writers’ blocks, his relationship with his three daughters and ‘his wife who shared his birthday and wore glasses like him’. Bhatt comments on the charges of obscenity as well as he narrates a dramatic version of Manto’s Khol Do, which put the writer in a spot with the government for addressing sexual abuse of women during the Partition.
‘Read Manto to judge him. Don’t judge without reading,’ Bhatt appealed.
Bhatt, a veteran stage actor, performed his 90-minute solo act at a unique open-air stage at the Khoj International Artists Association. The monologue combined texts from Manto, Main Afsana Kyun Kar Likhta Hoon, Khol Do, Kal Sawere Jo Meri Aankh Khuli, Toba Tek Singh and Deewaron Pe Likhna.
Ek Mulaqat Manto Se reflects the traumatic life of Saadat Hasan Manto in the context of his emotional and physical uprooting by the Partition that eventually drove him to his death.
Performed in Urdu, the play begins with his days in India at the time of Partition and shifts to Lahore, ‘where he tries to see the new sociopolitical and economic circumstances through the eyes of the common man in the bazaars and neighbourhood’.
Even the local parlance changes with the birth of ‘Zindabad Pakistan’ — a slogan he utters frequently to describe his new homeland.
What holds good in Delhi does not hold good in Lahore anymore, Manto’s daughters (also played by Bhatt) point out to him in the play.
Manto moved to Lahore around 1948 after leaving a steady job as a writer for the Urdu service of All India Radio in Delhi. In Lahore, his apartment was located at the Lakshmi Mansions near the Main Mall. The neighbourhood was inhabited by intellectuals, who were all said to be ‘destined to play strategic roles in the new Pakistan’.
The atmosphere might have been congenial for intellectual progress, but Manto did not know how to earn enough to support his family of four. He wrote his afsanas with zeal but the money was inadequate. It also marked the beginning of his decline. The itinerant state of Manto’s physical state and his intellectual flowering is captured with brilliance by Bhatt who converts one of the smaller courtyards of Khoj into a busy Lahore mall.
Manto ruminates upon his life, writers’ blocks, his relationship with his three daughters and ‘his wife who shared his birthday and wore glasses like him’. Bhatt comments on the charges of obscenity as well as he narrates a dramatic version of Manto’s Khol Do, which put the writer in a spot with the government for addressing sexual abuse of women during the Partition.
‘Read Manto to judge him. Don’t judge without reading,’ Bhatt appealed.
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