In Bombay's seedy-shiny film world, Manto and his stories are widely read and accepted. But as sectarian violence engulfs the nation, Manto makes the difficult choice of leaving his beloved Bombay. In Lahore, he finds himself bereft of friends and unable to find takers for his writings.
Acting
Nawazuddin's eyes contain entire civilizations collapsing.
Writing
Dialogue that stings like the man's own prose.
Direction
Das lets silence do what Manto let subtext do.
Director
Nandita Das
Nawazuddin Siddiqui
Saadat Hasan Manto
Rasika Dugal
Safia
Tahir Raj Bhasin
Sunder Shyam
Feryna Wazheir
Nargis
Javed Akhtar
Abid Ali Abid
Chandan Roy Sanyal
Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi
Rishi Kapoor
Film Producer
Inaamulhaq
Hamid
Ranvir Shorey
Ishar Singh
Rajshri Deshpande
Ismat Chugtai
Ila Arun
Jaddanbai
Divya Dutta
Kulwant Kaur
Paresh Rawal
Pimp
Tillotama Shome
Prostitute
Shashank Arora
Shaad Amritsari
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Nawazuddin read Manto's entire collected works twice before filming; the pauses in his performance are literally where he turned pages.
The film was banned in Pakistan for 'negative portrayal' — ironically proving Manto's point about silenced voices, 70 years later.
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