Remembering Manto: The doyen who always spoke his mind

Event’s popularity signifies Manto’s enduring hold over the public imagination.

LAHORE:

Olomopolo Media organised an event titled Absolute Manto with the tag line Let’s Tolerate Manto on Saturday at Alhamra Gaddafi Stadium to celebrate the life and work of writer Saadat Hasan Manto.

Hall I, the venue for the event, was filled to the brim- a testament to the writer’s enduring popularity and the magnetism of his work. The organisers had chosen four noted people to read works related to the writer or penned by him.

The event had been organised to read Manto again and to remember the writer who spoke his mind against all odds. It was this aspect of Manto’s writing that was highlighted by academic Mira Hashmi, in her Urdu translation of Our Case against Manto, an article written by novelist Mohsin Hamid. It questioned Manto’s obsession with what had been labelled as obscene literature. It looked at various subjects that Manto selected to write about questioning why he had chosen to write about repulsive things including a prostitute hugging a flea-ridden dog or authoring detailed descriptions of the female anatomy.

Actor Sania Saeed, director Sarmad Khoosat and activist Faryal Ali Gauhar also selected stories that highlighted various aspects of Manto’s beliefs and writings. Khoosat enacted the infamous short story Thanda Gosht - that highlights the trauma of the partition of British India in addition to providing an explicit description of the sexual relationship between its protagonists.

Saeed read Yazid, a story about the antics of one Kareem Daad, after India threatens to stop the flow of water from a river that irrigates fields in his village. On a simply lit stage, with jute chairs and a jute charpai under a tree in the background, Saeed read the story - personifying different characters in the story as they challenged Karim Daad’s belief of looking for solutions instead of bemoaning India’s action. Shaheed Saaz, which was enacted by Gauhar, is a monologue of a shrewd Gujrati businessman who decides to settle in Pakistan following the partition. Hoping to do some ‘good’ and wanting to be ‘helpful’ the entrepreneur arrives at the conclusion that helping people achieve martyrdom is the best thing one could do for them.

Olompolo Media also showcased Syah Hashiye, a series of extremely short stories written by Manto, with pictures complimenting the stories’ titles. Music videos picturised on some of Manto’s stories were also shown on the occasion.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 26^th, 2015.