Manto- An artistic piece of exellence!

Story: Freedom to write a piece with one's creativity and flow is the only thing that attracts a good writer. The liberty to pen down thoughts no matter how obscene they might be for a common man is what makes them different. Although the writers perceive this inhumane world quite adversely. A writer always weaves his story very carefully stitching each and every thread of the word completely anew; such was the story of Manto.

The story which sets in the era when the British ruled the country, Manto is a 2018 Indian biographical drama film about the famous Urdu author Saadat Hasan Manto (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) is, written and directed by Nandita Das. The writer who was born and brought up in Mumbai struggles through a hard time as he is hit by the news of partition and is forced to ascend towards the north-western part of India, i.e Lahore (Pakistan). 

While living in Mumbai, the writer comes across numerous social and economic issues India faced during the pre-independence era. However, in the taboo Indian society, he tries to reform the position of prostitutes in the working old-fashioned society through his writings and scripts. 

Review: The liberty to direct a film according to the director's sense irrespective of the societal issues or being clutched by the censors is every 'Artist's' dream. Freedom is one of the key elements of producing a piece which is worth every penny spent on the foregrounding structure that the director tries to shape. A film is quite thick in nature, it shapes as per the director's artistic vision. And when it comes to Nandita Das, she knows how to exemplify and maneuver her resources in the best possible way.

You could never expect anything less from Nawazuddin Siddiqui as the actor has been on par with many great actors in the industry. The actor who was praised by none other than 'Roger Ebert', the actor's journey has been colossal since then. Even while Nawaz performs a supporting role, he manages to give his best as the versatile actor seems to play a pivotal role in each and every project the actor signs. Throughout the film, Nawaz is seen wearing a simple white kurta and pyjama and hardly a jacket, and that is the only required costume he needed! 

Rasika Duggal co-starring with Nawaz did a flawless job as she plays the character of Safia. The simplicity of the character attracts the viewer's attention.  

The film screens many cameos of the prominent artists like Ashok Kumar to Naushad Ali Saab that have worked in the industry since the inception of Bollywood. The story might tend to get fanatically crazy as the film gives you tidbits of Manto's characters, during the climax of the scenes, that would have made a completely disastrous direction yet the film manages to hold off the audience quite well! The script and the dialogues are the ones to be looking out for as the film gives you the magnum opus essence finished literary pieces as the film might confuse you within the fictional characters of Manto.   

Last but not the least, at times writer's stories might be the ones that destroy the writers itself, but even today Manto lives at his highest peak in the literary-front. While India was broken apart by cast, creed and religious sentiments by Britisher's India was in a poor economic state, similarly, Manto's pages left blank and unwritten which got silenced with the passing of time.

Ratings: 4/5