Don’t say that one lakh Hindus and a one lakh Muslims died. Say two lakh humans died. Muslims might have thought that by killing Hindus, the Hindu faith would be wiped out. But it’s alive and will continue to live. Similarly, after killing Muslims, Hindus might have gloated over the extinction of Islam. But the reality is before you. Islam did not suffer the faintest scratch. Religion, faith, belief, are not confined to the body, they dwell in the human soul. And no gun, bullet, dagger, sword can silence the soul.
These lines are from the play Sahay by Saadat Hasan Manto.
Amidst a deluge of definitions, if there is a word that can single-handedly describe Saadat Hasan Manto’s works, it will be “disturbing”. Manto, who died young and continues to live through his famous and perhaps infamous writings, has entered his centenary year.
And to celebrate the event, Little Thespian, an Urdu theatre group from Kolkata, organised a four day theatre festival titled Be-Lagaam Manto. (Uncontrollable Manto).
“He is one of the most controversial writer whose stories gave us scathing insight into the human behaviour as well as revelation of the macabre animalistic nature of an enraged people during riots, he sincerely brought out stories of prostitutes and pimps alike, just as he highlighted the subversive sexual slavery of the women of his times. No part of human existence remains untouched or is a taboo for him. He never indulged in didacticism or romanticised his character, nor offered any judgement on his characters. He simply presented them in a realistic light, and left the judgement on to the reader’s eyes. This allowed his works to be interpreted in a myriad ways, depending on the viewpoint of the reader,” says Uma Jhunjhunwala, actor and director of Little Thespian.
As dusk fell on Kolkata’s sky, for four consecutive evenings theatre lovers gathered to watch Manto unravel before their eyes, to ponder over a writer whose pen not only pricked the society’s conscience, left them shaken and embarrassed, it also brought him under legal surveillance on charges of obscenity. Manto’s response to his critics was, “A writer picks up his pen only when his sensibility is hurt.”
The protagonists in most of his stories were women, and women held centrestage in Be-Lagaam Manto as well.
Be it Zubeida of Aulad whose inability to bear a child made her existence worthless in her own eyes, or Inayat the widow, who was denied the right to earn a decent living but was given the licence to sell her body. Or Sakina who suffered the worst horror of partition, dislocated and brutalised, her obliging last act came as a hard slap on the face of humanity.
And then there were Sultana and Sougandhi, women who belonged to the flesh trade, yet the hope of finding the simple pleasures of life never departed from them.
And in the pursuit of love, their expectations were manipulated with deception.
Manto’s men, too, never had it easy, they were deceived, traumatised, suffered from guilt pangs, carried a wounded conscience and met violent deaths.
While Little Thespian enacted Aulaad, Khol Do, Licence, Sahay, Thanda Gosht and Bu, Sutradhar from Hyderabad staged Siyaah Haashiye (Black Borders), a collection of 32 cameos written by Manto, often referred to as “the original enfant terrible of Urdu literature”.
Rangkarmee, the theatre group managed by veteran actor and director Usha Ganguly, had to its credit a series of Manto’s work and on this occasion, Badnaam Manto dealing with Kali Shalwar, Licence and Hatak were re-enacted. The brilliant portrayal especially by senior actors like Usha Ganguly and S. M Azhar Alam added a fresh perspective to the well etched characters.
Noted theatre actor Goutam Halder from Naya Natua group shared some snatches of Manto ke Afsane and Khursheed Ikram and Mohammad. Tauqir Azam, brought Inquilaab Pasand, a story about a human who raises his voice against the injustice prevalent in society and how he is branded as “insane” and sent to a mental asylum.
Festival director Uma Alam captivated the listeners with her dramatic reading of Khuda Ki Qasam, a woman’s search for her daughter, who was abducted by rioters during the partition blood bath.
S.M. Rashid, director of Inquilab rightly pointed out, “There was a time when a misconception prevailed that branded Manto’s writing as vulgar. As a result, people used to read him discreetly, away from the prying eyes of the elders. But in these four days, as the writer’s selected stories were revisited, there was not even a single moment or the slightest hint, that his writing has taken an indecent turn.”