Hot take: Manto

'Manto' (2018) is a biopic on one of India (and Pakistan)'s finest short story writers, Saadat Hasan Manto. The opening shot plunges us into one of his short stories, setting the tone for this literary biopic that weaves between his life and his fiction, which were so closely intertwined. "I write what I see" Manto declares, and the film does the same. Rita Ghosh's pitch-perfect production design and Kartik Vijay's faded, film grain-quality cinematography transports us instantly into the undivided--and then divided--India of the 40s.

The approach is impressionistic, flitting between real life and fiction, jumping between episodes and making great time leaps. The writing, except when it explicitly borrows Manto's own words, is lacklustre. Not enough energy is spent on giving the audience important contextual information about this great literary figure who is unknown to most. The film is intelligent, but perhaps a bit too clever -- failing to emotionally engage or rise above the material to create real dramatic energy. In the second half, the screenplay begins to feel static, even though this is when the protagonist's descent into madness is beginning to become the crux of the story. The cloud of star cameos detracts from rather than enhances the narrative --although a special mention must be made for Bhanu Uday Singh as Ashok Kumar and Divya Dutta and Ranvir Shorey for their blistering enactment of the short story 'Cold Meat' ('Thanda Ghosht')

Manto would have been a more engaging film if it had given us a more intimate look at the writer without any of the attendant noise, as he is so winsomely portrayed by Nawazuddin Siddiqui. By far the most interesting character for me was his wife Safiya, played by Rasika Duggal, who commendably steers away from enacting the drunken writer's wife as a long-suffering type. Instead we see her embody the character's tenderness, empathy, clear-headedness, open-mindedness and determination.

Director Nandita Das's work is ambitious in scope, attempting to tell us about Manto the writer, the husband, father, alcoholic and friend in equal measure. I wish the film had picked one angle (the Ismat-Safiya-Manto triangle, or the court cases perhaps) and stuck with it, instead of touching upon all subjects at a surface level. Maybe we would have then felt more for these characters. As it is, the film ironically falls prey to the trap of living within its own bubble (much like Manto himself) and loses track of who it is speaking to. I wish it had spoken more clearly to the masses than it does, because the message is timely and the intentions certainly noble.

Genre: Biography, Social drama

Language: Hindi/Urdu

Runtime: 1h 52min

Year of release: 2018

Streaming platform: Netflix

Hot take is a series in which I offer my first impressions of films from India and around the world.