The Most Underrated Indian Film! (It's Not Tamasha)

I am not going to give you any spoilers about the movie, so you can read without any worries about Manto, directed by Nandita Das. Unfortunately, this movie isn’t available on any OTT platform, so feel free to ask me for it after reading this.

If you have read a lot of Urdu and Hindi literature, you might be familiar with who Saadat Hasan Manto is. I was not. I didn’t know he was this famous writer who used to live in Bombay and left it during the Partition to go to Pakistan. I got to know about his work through this movie, and it moved me.

Right after the movie, I listened to and read his stories on YouTube and random websites. After that, I just wished that my Hindi and Urdu were strong enough so that I could truly appreciate his work. His stories have the ability to depress you while making you wonder how poetically something so sad can be expressed. Manto, the movie, is his life story.

Even though I didn’t know who Manto was, I went into the movie with high expectations because Manto is played by none other than Nawazuddin Siddiqui. If you have seen his interview with Samdish, you can see the passion he has for his craft. In Manto, you can see that passion oozing out of him and taking over. He absolutely nails every scene, and I would be a fool to say anything bad about his acting. His performance, along with the performances of all the supporting characters, should be enough to get this film talked about more often.

Manto is not like any other Hindi film you’ve seen. This movie has a regular progression, but at the same time, five of Manto’s stories are woven into the movie. The movie starts with a story written by Manto rather than the story of Manto himself. And you won’t complain about it because every story has the emotional weight and a pinch of truth to give you goosebumps. I had to literally pause the movie right after the first story just to absorb what happened.

This doesn’t mean the story is boring by any standards. The cuts, the cinematography, every scene, and every dialogue blend well to make it a great movie.

The movie touches on many themes, but that’s not what makes it special. What makes it special is its authenticity. I think director Nandita deliberately kept creative liberty at home and honored Manto by showcasing an honest portrayal instead of trying to inject drama. Manto would have loved that because, through his stories, he never tried to show anything rosy about the world. He wrote the truth, mostly the ugly truth that no one wants to face. In one dialogue, he describes his stories as: "Main toh apni kahaniyon ko bas ek aaina samajhta hoon jismein samaaj apne aap ko dekh sake, aur agar kisi buri soorat wale ko aaine se hi shikayat ho toh usmein mera kya kasoor?" (I consider my stories to be just a mirror in which society can see itself, and if someone with an unpleasant face has a complaint with the mirror, then how is that my fault?)

Nandita followed the same philosophy. She didn’t try to show him as a hero, villain, good, bad, or anything. She tried to portray the man with all his flaws and show him for what he is—a great writer, but also someone who is egoistic, stuck in his own head, unable to get over what he has lost, and hurting people around him with his own issues.

He is not perfect. Just like the characters in his stories, he is flawed. If Manto had seen himself in the mirror, he might have complained a bit about the mirror too. And that’s what makes it worth watching.

I hope I have convinced you enough to watch this movie. I hope this underrated piece gets the recognition it deserves and gives Nawaz the confidence to do more movies like this again.

Thanks for reading, and cut!