Nandita Das on Manto, censorship and activism

Gulf News

Nandita Das on ‘Manto’, films and censorship. Indian filmmaker and actress Nandita Das talks about her latest movie Manto, films and censorship.  Read the full Gulf News article: https://gulfnews.com/life-style/celebrity/desi-news/bollywood/nandita-das-on-manto-films-and-censorship-1.2295199  See more at: http://gulfnews.com/videos

Transcript

00:00It's largely for people who don't know Manto, it's my way of introducing Manto to the world

00:08but it's just not that, for me it's more, what is more really important is to kind of

00:13invoke the Manto-ness in you, I've made it into a word.

00:18For me Manto-ness or Manto-yat as we say it in Hindustani is conviction and the courage

00:25to follow that conviction.

00:27He came from a place of truth, some people say he was very arrogant and all of that but

00:31that arrogance which we understand as arrogance actually came from a confidence, a strength

00:38you have when you know you are speaking the truth, you know it's not just about speaking

00:42your mind but sort of fighting for something that's true, fighting for something that you

00:48know you care about the world, you come from a place of compassion and the courage to uphold

00:53that conviction, you may have a conviction but if you don't really have the courage to

00:58follow it through, then it's no point.

01:00So Manto-ness is our will or our desire to be more truthful, I'm trying to tell a story

01:05that I feel has moved me and I know I'm not so unique so I want to believe there are lots

01:11of people who care about what's happening, who want these kind of role models, who are

01:17not all good or bad, who are not sort of how do you say, we are not putting them on a pedestal,

01:22I'm not saying he was, everything was great about him, I'm showing him with all his what's

01:27and blemishes, I think the way Manto would have liked to see himself shown because that's

01:32how he saw life, he saw people, he felt the worst of people are redeemable and the best

01:38of people have their shadows and I think that's the reality.

01:42So I'm not trying to appease anybody, I'm just putting out a story and saying take from

01:48it what touches you, what moves you, what you care for, if you feel yes, I have convictions,

01:53I don't have the courage, draw that courage or if you feel I don't have convictions, is

01:57it really important to really feel passionately about something, then get inspired by it.

02:03Nawaz was on my mind from the time that I wrote the script, I in fact told him in 2013

02:08when there was no script, I was still sort of weaving the story and reading and researching

02:13and that's when I told him in the steps of Khan, I was in the short film Juri and he

02:18was there with the film and I told him I have this amazing role and you know you'll be

02:23crazy, tell me, I said I can't tell you now and then he got it out of me and when I told

02:27him Manto, he said oh god, I'm a huge fan of Manto, I've done his plays in National

02:32School of Drama and I'll give you all the time in the world.

02:36I think he's brought so much truth to the character, he's got a huge range as we all

02:40know and there's something about his eyes that I felt was so compelling and they were

02:46like he had lived life and which Nawaz has, he's gone through a lot in his own life and

02:51so had Manto, Manto died at 42 but he had gone through so much and he took the whole

02:56partition so personally, he was extremely, extremely sensitive and I felt I needed a

03:01sensitive human being to portray that.

03:04I think today artists are self-censoring which is sad because you know truly great art can't

03:10flourish if we create our own boundaries, we need to be responsible but responsible

03:15coming from a place of truth, not from oh I need to be careful because someone's going

03:20to think that I am stepping on their toes, you know it doesn't, we don't have to do things

03:25out of fear, we have to do in fact things out of conviction.

03:28Yes, what to keep, what not to keep was a challenge because Manto was very prolific.

03:34I had actually thought of 10 years of his story so it was 1942 to 52 but there was so

03:39much material, it kept getting narrower and narrower and now it's only four years but

03:44the four most crucial and most tumultuous years when the partition happened right in

03:49the middle and also Manto who was so in love with Bombay had to leave and goes to Lahore

03:56and why those changes and why did he decide, why did he not come back and it also deals

04:01with a very intimate personal journey of a writer, what is it that pains a writer, why

04:07does a writer write, what does he write, why is Manto so special as a writer, what

04:12is his raw truth, all of those hopefully in subtler ways have been addressed.

04:16We think activism is like you follow someone, you click someone, you do a petition so I'm

04:22not a cynic, I think everything matters in whichever way if we can express solidarity

04:29with people who are doing good work, it's all good but at the same time having sort

04:34of met a lot of genuine, hardcore, grassroot level activists, people who have really given

04:40their lives for causes, I feel like we are still armchair people who are kind of you

04:45know, I won't even say that bigger word but like we're just trying to be good human beings,

04:52we're trying to make our own lives more meaningful like for instance Manto was tried for obscenity

04:58six times and every single time he fought it because he believed that it was worth fighting

05:04for what true literature is or what art is and why art cannot be deemed as obscene just

05:11because you take a word or a sentence out of context, so he fought against censorship,

05:16something that we are also kind of grappling with, he talked about identities which were

05:21beyond national and religious and caste and what not, that's what's dividing us today

05:26and not just in India or Pakistan but world over, so I think he's just so relevant, it

05:32was my way of responding to what's happening around me and you know sort of taking refuge

05:37in Manto and saying Manto can say it better.

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