Mantostaan movie review: Poor writing, amateurish acting!

Cast: Raghubir Yadav, Sonal Sehgal, Shoib Nikash Shah, Tariq Khan, Virendra Saxena, Raina Bassnet and Rahat Kazmi
Director: Rahat Kazmi

The fearless thoughts of one of the best Urdu short story writers of the 20th century — Saadat Hasan Manto — painted a vivid picture of the chaos that ensued post partition. Known for his hatred of communalism, hypocrisy of believers, exploitation of women and bloodshed on the eve of partition of India, Manto stood for humanism, and also exposed the soulless elite of his times.

More than 60 years after he passed away, there has been a re-emergence of interest in the life of the radical storyteller who never conformed to tradition, more so, because he seems to have been rediscovered in these turbulent times.

But the literary prowess of Manto cannot be reduced to his being a mere archivist of smouldering tales, which recounted the chaos and horrors that prevailed during and after the Partition of India in 1947. The raconteur continues to haunt us with his candid and exploitative projection of religious frenzy that ranged from socio-economic injustice prevailing in pre- and post-colonial era to the more controversial topics of love, sex, prostitution and typical hypocrisy in the traditionally male dominated world.

Not many filmmakers have the flair and compassion to understand such tales. To be able to do justice to the genius of such a renegade writer and not rob his writings of flourish requires craftsmanship, both as a writer and a chronicler.

In Mantostaan, writer-director Rahat Kazmi’s adaptation of four of Manto’s controversial stories — Agreement, Thanda Gosht, Khol Do and Akhri Salute — is slack and superficial. Kazmi compiles all the stories into a single narrative, but, as it turns out, Mantostaan is frustratingly uneven, struggling to maintain momentum in its inadequate attempt at capturing the genius of the renegade writer, and the flames of the partition. To make things worse, any time the fluctuating narrative starts to pick up steam, the effect is marred by poor acting. Its jarring use of changing perspectives is too lifeless to have any impact.

Whether it’s Khol Do — the story of Sakina (Sakshi Bhatt) and her father Sirajuddin (Raghubir yadav) — who are separated in the communal riots when Sirajuddin insists on saving her honour by retrieving her dupatta; the torrid sexual overtones in Thanda Gosht about the Sikh couple Ishar Singh (Shoib Shah) and Kulwant Kaur (Sonal Sehgal), whose physical relationship is cold and callous, and is further ruined by Singh’s admission of guilt of getting involved in the riots and making love to a dead girl. Kaur, who suspects him of infidelity, stabs him with his own dagger in a fit of jealousy, the screen adaptation of each of these dramatic storyline lacks punch, and have been handled amateurishly.

In the adaptation of Assignment, which is a story of a Muslim ex-Judge Milan Sahab (Virendra Saxena) and his Sikh friend, and how even after the death of the Sikh, his son continues the tradition of sending sweets to the Muslim family even during troubled times the characters’ synthetic construct is too literal to be comprehended. Or in Aakhri Salute about childhood friends Ram Singh (Tariq Khan) and Nawab (Rahat Kazmi), both of whom join their respective countries’ armies of India and Pakistan, neither the cheerfulness nor the antagonism as bitter enemies on either side of the same border, moves the viewers.

The harsh realities of such powerful stories don’t leave a mark and is not impactful also because the interlinking of the tales looks flat visually.

Is there anything that can be called a takeaway? Just a thing or two. From among the cast, for instance, what stays with you is, perhaps, Raghubir Yadav’s efforts to salvage out-of-balance, oddly scattered film from becoming unwatchable. A rare film based on a rare subject like the fierce Manto, who was irreverent and had an irrepressible desire to poke a finger in the eye of the establishment, holds more relevance in today’s day and age, freedom of expression is often compromised.

Mantostaan, as opposed to Hindustan or Pakistan, will not create a storm of controversy neither by the strait-laced Muslim nor the secular left-wing revolutionary, even when you momentarily connect with the characters for their plight.

The writer is a film critic and has been reviewing films for over 15 years. He also writes on music, art and culture, and other human interest stories.