• last year
Nandita Das on Manto, censorship and activism
Transcript
00:00It's largely for people who don't know Manto, it's my way of introducing Manto to the world
00:08but it's just not that, for me it's more, what is more really important is to kind of
00:13invoke the Manto-ness in you, I've made it into a word.
00:18For me Manto-ness or Manto-yat as we say it in Hindustani is conviction and the courage
00:25to follow that conviction.
00:27He came from a place of truth, some people say he was very arrogant and all of that but
00:31that arrogance which we understand as arrogance actually came from a confidence, a strength
00:38you have when you know you are speaking the truth, you know it's not just about speaking
00:42your mind but sort of fighting for something that's true, fighting for something that you
00:48know you care about the world, you come from a place of compassion and the courage to uphold
00:53that conviction, you may have a conviction but if you don't really have the courage to
00:58follow it through, then it's no point.
01:00So Manto-ness is our will or our desire to be more truthful, I'm trying to tell a story
01:05that I feel has moved me and I know I'm not so unique so I want to believe there are lots
01:11of people who care about what's happening, who want these kind of role models, who are
01:17not all good or bad, who are not sort of how do you say, we are not putting them on a pedestal,
01:22I'm not saying he was, everything was great about him, I'm showing him with all his what's
01:27and blemishes, I think the way Manto would have liked to see himself shown because that's
01:32how he saw life, he saw people, he felt the worst of people are redeemable and the best
01:38of people have their shadows and I think that's the reality.
01:42So I'm not trying to appease anybody, I'm just putting out a story and saying take from
01:48it what touches you, what moves you, what you care for, if you feel yes, I have convictions,
01:53I don't have the courage, draw that courage or if you feel I don't have convictions, is
01:57it really important to really feel passionately about something, then get inspired by it.
02:03Nawaz was on my mind from the time that I wrote the script, I in fact told him in 2013
02:08when there was no script, I was still sort of weaving the story and reading and researching
02:13and that's when I told him in the steps of Khan, I was in the short film Juri and he
02:18was there with the film and I told him I have this amazing role and you know you'll be
02:23crazy, tell me, I said I can't tell you now and then he got it out of me and when I told
02:27him Manto, he said oh god, I'm a huge fan of Manto, I've done his plays in National
02:32School of Drama and I'll give you all the time in the world.
02:36I think he's brought so much truth to the character, he's got a huge range as we all
02:40know and there's something about his eyes that I felt was so compelling and they were
02:46like he had lived life and which Nawaz has, he's gone through a lot in his own life and
02:51so had Manto, Manto died at 42 but he had gone through so much and he took the whole
02:56partition so personally, he was extremely, extremely sensitive and I felt I needed a
03:01sensitive human being to portray that.
03:04I think today artists are self-censoring which is sad because you know truly great art can't
03:10flourish if we create our own boundaries, we need to be responsible but responsible
03:15coming from a place of truth, not from oh I need to be careful because someone's going
03:20to think that I am stepping on their toes, you know it doesn't, we don't have to do things
03:25out of fear, we have to do in fact things out of conviction.
03:28Yes, what to keep, what not to keep was a challenge because Manto was very prolific.
03:34I had actually thought of 10 years of his story so it was 1942 to 52 but there was so
03:39much material, it kept getting narrower and narrower and now it's only four years but
03:44the four most crucial and most tumultuous years when the partition happened right in
03:49the middle and also Manto who was so in love with Bombay had to leave and goes to Lahore
03:56and why those changes and why did he decide, why did he not come back and it also deals
04:01with a very intimate personal journey of a writer, what is it that pains a writer, why
04:07does a writer write, what does he write, why is Manto so special as a writer, what
04:12is his raw truth, all of those hopefully in subtler ways have been addressed.
04:16We think activism is like you follow someone, you click someone, you do a petition so I'm
04:22not a cynic, I think everything matters in whichever way if we can express solidarity
04:29with people who are doing good work, it's all good but at the same time having sort
04:34of met a lot of genuine, hardcore, grassroot level activists, people who have really given
04:40their lives for causes, I feel like we are still armchair people who are kind of you
04:45know, I won't even say that bigger word but like we're just trying to be good human beings,
04:52we're trying to make our own lives more meaningful like for instance Manto was tried for obscenity
04:58six times and every single time he fought it because he believed that it was worth fighting
05:04for what true literature is or what art is and why art cannot be deemed as obscene just
05:11because you take a word or a sentence out of context, so he fought against censorship,
05:16something that we are also kind of grappling with, he talked about identities which were
05:21beyond national and religious and caste and what not, that's what's dividing us today
05:26and not just in India or Pakistan but world over, so I think he's just so relevant, it
05:32was my way of responding to what's happening around me and you know sort of taking refuge
05:37in Manto and saying Manto can say it better.