Manto - a 2015 Pakistani biographical film based on the life of Indo - Pakistani short story writer Sadat Hassan Manto was part of three days festival – SalamFest in Melbourne.
Writer Manto grew-up in Bombay, now Mumbai and had moved to Lahore after the partition of India.
One of the most talented and many prestigious award winner actress of Pakistan, Sania Saeed who plays the role of Manto’s wife ‘Safiya’ / Bagum Manto, said that playing this role was quite a challenging one. … “Manto never wrote about his wife. So whatever we know about Safiya is through the writings of the other writers. It was a challenge to recreate a personality who was such a silent strong support to Manto…”
Speaking with SBS Hindi radio, she added, “ ...The life of a wife of any activist is always a difficult one and full of challenges and Safiya was not an exception …”
Sania said that what made Manto and Safiya special is that they shared a great relationship – a friendship to get inspired with.
Pakistani Film Manto is being screened on Sunday 26th Nov 2017 in Melbourne as part of SalamFest, Melbourne. Source: Ayesha Bux
Coming from a strong theatre background, Sania had been involved in Manto’s play readings too.
Sania’s theatre group had been a strong voice for against discriminatory laws against women, unemployment, unavailability of basic amenities, encouraging education, etc. through their performances. Other than working on the full length scripts, it also encourages children to participate in various theatre workshops to become confident and aware of themselves.
Was she fully satisfied with the out come, her portrayal of Safiya, Manto’s wife in the film?
Sania said with a great joy, “ when Manto’s daughter saw the film and told me that ‘ammi was just the way I have portrayed…’ That was it. This was the most valuable and precious compliment. I was relieved that I did justice to the role. Nothing else mattered to me…”
One of the most talented and award winning Pakistani actor Sania Saeed who plays the role of Safiya (begum of Manto) in Film Manto. Source: Ayesha Bux
Directed by Khoosat himself, it was produced by Babar Javed, and written by Shahid Nadeem, whose screenplay was adapted from Manto's short stories,[4] particularly "Thanda Gosht", "Madari", "License", "Hatak" and "Peshawar Se Lahore".
The film focuses the last seven years of his life when during that time, he wrote his perhaps most dark bitter stories reflecting on the madness prevailed at the time of partition of India.
Stories such as "Thanda Gosht", "Toba Tek Singh", "Thanda Gosht", "License", "Upar, Neechay aur Darmiyan" and "Peshawar Se Lahore" , ‘Khol do’ reflect upon the brutality and absurdities of that time.
His stories were controversial, daring and hence Manto had to face backlash too.
Saadat Hasan ‘Manto’ is widely acknowledged as creative genius and one of the greatest short story writers in the world. He was already an established writer before August 1947, but the stories he wrote after the partition, made him more controversial.
It is said that Manto initially was not in favour of going to new nation Pakistan but one evening , when one of his friend remarked that had it not being for the friendship, he would have killed Manto.
This incident changed everything, and Manto packed his bags for Lahore.
In this short span of 43 years of his life, Manto had number of collections of short stories, radio dramas, essays, one novel and few film scripts to his credit.
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