Magic of Manto

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The stage was set to tell the story worth retelling. Mantoiyat, a presentation by Dastangoi on the life and times of notable Urdu writer Saadat Hasan Manto, was high on hilarious anecdotes and some unforgettable couplets.

Stag-ed during the two-day seminar organised by Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust in association with Nehru Memorial Museum and Library to commemorate the 100 years of Manto at Teen Murti Auditorium recently, Mantoiyat was an attempt to revive the art of Urdu storytelling.
A bed covered with a white sheet, two bolsters on it and two candles flickering beside thick books on side tables, the stage gave a cosy feeling of bedtime stories. Wearing white achakans the storytellers — Danish Husain and Darain Shahidi — took the audience on a journey of Manto’s life full of ups and downs, aspirations, struggles, disappointments, banned stories and court cases.
Danish narrated how Manto used to make bizarre excuses to borrow money from relatives and friends to buy books. “Once he was caught stealing a book from a bookstall in Amritsar. While being taken to the police Manto started shouting pro-freedom slogans in the middle of a busy road. People mistook Manto as a freedom fighter. The road was soon blocked and many started arguing with the stall owner for taking a freedom fighter to the police. Amid all the chaos Manto quietly walked away with the stolen book,” retold Danish.
From here Darain took the story forward by revealing Manto’s flirtatious nature and prankish side. As the storytellers dwelled into the ups and downs in Manto’s life they played multiple characters with ease. If partition, letdown by Hindi cinema, court cases and his love for then Bombay revealed some painful chapters of Manto’s life, hilarious anecdotes also made the audience burst into laughter.
The two-hour performance enthralled the audience from all age groups and received a standing ovation.
“The art of story telling is deep rooted in our culture and such performances remind us of the importance and pleasure of story telling,” says Sohail Hashmi, founder member of Sahmat.
Actor, poet and theatre director, Danish says that the response to Dastangoi has been great, “We have been telling many stories in various cities and countries. We will stage Mantoiyat in Pakistan in November 2012 and February 2013,” says Danish.
Delhi will witness another performance of Mantoiyat on October 12 at Shri Ram Centre where the storytelling will once again extend to drama and relive the art of storytelling.