HYDERABAD: “Who am I to remove clothes of this society, which itself is naked,” is how firebrand author of yesteryears Saadat Hasan Manto held a mirror to a society which, even now, stands nude in its prejudices.
He would have been 105 years old on May 11; a quintessential name without whom the stories of partitioned India can’t be read. And reading him is relevant even today, more so because the hearts like geographies across the border are still partitioned. That’s how works by Manto are read and listened to with great interest as the same take one back to history, to times when maps disappeared in blood and fire. The GenX showed much interest in the shard-like-sharp stories of Manto as the same were read at Lamakaan by the city-based theatre-actor and directorVinay Varma. His rendition in chaste Urdu coupled with witty turn of sentences floored the attendees especially the younger ones as by the end of the story-reading many of them wanted to learn more about Hindustani and continued conversing with the artiste in the once much dearly loved language of the awaam.
But why story-reading? Why not the stage performance? Why should anyone come to listen to a story being read and not performed? The recent media reports show a sharp decline in the purchase of reading device Kindle hinting towards people’s re-kindled interest, even if slight, in getting back to the books. “The story-reading is an attempt to re-introduce people to the world of books which we all read before losing ourselves to the digital world,” said Vinay. He added that one can’t get the smell and feel of books from any digital screen.
From time immemorial humans are interested in listening to stories and re-telling of the same. Everyone has that sepia memory of listening to stories as a child lost in the development of characters and how the plot progressed. The same seemed to be revisited by the audience the other day as Vinay as a reader and not a raconteur flipped the pages and read about Manto’s association with the Tinsel Town penned in his own words. He took a break from Manto’s dark stories of Partition, twisted lives of women confined in the bodies of prostitutes and instead focussed on the Bombay-based author’s role as an editor of a film magazine ‘Musawwir’ and as a screen writer who sees the film star of those times Naseem Banu closely; she was called Fairy Face for her exceptional beauty. Manto’s words flowed smoothly from the actor who stopped in between the sentences to explain a few tough words of Urdu. As the full moon slowly rose up the trees his rendition made the audience engrossed till the end.