IHS 319 : PARTITION LITERATURE MANTO (2018) Presented By: Abhishek Kumar Jha Production and Industrial Engineering Enrollment No.: 19111001 INTRODUCTION • Life of Sadat Hasan Manto: A storyteller who speaks truth people don’t generally like. • Life in Bombay, Going to Pakistan after Partition, Lahore • Friendships, relationship with family • Impact of leaving Bombay on his mind • Interwoven stories in the movie, 5 of them • The end: A mental asylum • Epitaph of Manto: “Here lies Sadat Hasan Manto buried with the mysteries of Short story writing. Under the earth, he wonders if he is the greatest storyteller or God” MANTO IN BOMBAY • Begins with the telling of story called ‘10 rupees note’. • A writer collecting pens, not using them. • Working for the film industry, doesn’t like the interference with his lines. • Writes for the lowest rung of the society, especially women grappling with survival issues. A voice for the dirtiest truths of our society. • Doesn’t practice religion as such. • Story: ‘100 watt ka bulb’ FRIENDS IN BOMBAY • Friends with Veteran Ashok Kumar, Actor Shyam Chadda, Naushad, Ismat Chugtai (Cotemporary Feminist Writer). • Communal violence in the wake of partition; refuses to leave Bombay, his love. • Flames of partition impacting the brain: Encounter with muslim crowd. • Keeps 2 caps, “When religion moves from the heart to the head, one has to wear caps”. • Shyam Chadda’s family impacted in Rawalpindi. Shyam’s uncles recollection of the horrors of violence. PARTITION REACHES MANTO • Shyam Chadda furious at Muslims for what happened to his family in Rawalpindi. • To Manto: ‘Could’ve killed you too’ (Because Manto is a muslim) • Manto hurt, unable to write. Decides to leave. • Shyam asks him to stay, refuses. • A writer writing on society and its issues, drinker and smoker, becomes Muslim in the wake of partition. TO PAKISTAN • Doesn’t want debt of Rs 1 of Govind Paan wala. • A narrative of how lives were torn apart, a place where his heart lived left behind. • Burnt and torn down streets of Lahore, remnants of partition violence. • ‘The Return’ story recounted, ‘khol do’ • News of Gandhi’s death, shocked. • Writes for magazines, Love for Mumbai unfaded. DEPRESSION • Recitation of Faiz’s Subah-e-aazadi: ये दाग़ दाग़ उजाला ये शब-गज़ीदा सहर वो इं तिजार था तजस का ये वो सहर िो नह़ीं • Sad about the condition of society: violence, rapes, communal divide taking mental toll • A scene: Every question has two answers, a Hindu and a Muslim one, an Indian and a Pakistani. • Starts getting too much into liquor. • A remark to a character: ‘You also want to remain optimistic in such times. Looking for silver lining always.’ LAHORE AND BOMBAY • Name of his residence: Laxmi Mansion, what’s to be hopeful about? Generations uprooted. Parsis make feel like Bombay • Police at home looking for stories, obscenity charges on ‘The Cold Meat’. • “Mera sab kuch to Bombay mein hi hai”. • Misses Bombay, misses Chugtai, doesn’t read letters from Bombay’s friends. • “Mere mulk ki tarah main bhi katkar aazad hua” • Financially weak, faces fine for charges of Obscenity on ‘The cold meat’. TOWARDS THE END • Shyam Chadda’s arrival to Lahore, tries to help Manto financially, he refuses. • Sad, depressed, drunk 24 hrs, family getting affected. • Why can’t reality be shown as it is? Closing one’s eyes doesn’t make the world free of vices. • Daughter almost dies due to his absent-Mindedness and drunk state. • Taken to mental asylum, movie ends with depiction of ‘Toba Tek Singh’. CONCLUSION • Manto says, ‘Agar aap mere afsaano ko bardasht nhi kr sakte…………..’. The truth hurts. • A story of how people who had the least to do with religion were affected the most adversely due to partition. • A tale of loss of love, loss of friends and subsequent mental state. • Remarkable intertwining of Manto’s iconic stories. • Showing a mirror to the society; saying the truth as it is makes Manto remarkable. Darkest of human sins voiced by Manto, more so in the rubble of Partition. • The loss of Bombay, where his Father, his Mother and his First Child were buried. Bombay lingered on in him, as did their motherlands with millions others, who perished at the knock of partition. A chilling tale, loss of identity. SADAT HASAN DIED IN 1955 MANTO LIVES ON… THANK YOU!
