Wednesday, March 02, 2005
Manto Naama: The Life of Sadat Hasan Manto by Jagdish Chander Wadhawan
A strictly okay book. Its a very interesting subject matter but not very well presented or written.
Sadat Hasan Manto, a very popular Urdu writer, lived a trying life. All through his life his works were constantly judged, penalised or even banned. But today over forty years later, his works are hailed as landmark in Urdu literature.
Dealing with a variety of themes, mostly reflecting his current mental well being, his works include short stories, novels, plays especially for radio and sketches. Dhuan, Kali Shalwar and Thanda Ghosht ka Tukda are some of his more (in)famous works.
The book per se, does not do justice to the phenomenon called Manto. It moves back and forth with the subject matter in the book not quite properly organised therefore one sees a lot of repetition of information which could have been woven in much more skillfully.
The demarcations or categories listed are in some places quite abstract. His stint with the Mumbai film industry ( I could not tell how long it lasted) but was very fleetingly mentioned, only to be measured by the number of people he called his "friends". Also Manto, according to the book, valued friendship a great deal but depsite this the friends who perhap had a negative influence on him are not mentioned at all. Though this could be intentional, his erratic mood swings, attributed to his friends, are not suffiently explained.
But you do get to know a lot about Manto's life - his inspirations, his loves, his abject poverty on some days, his pride and his love for his family. One comes away feeling like it is a narrative about Manto's life than the writer actually getting under Manto's skin.
Some particularly nice lines:
He makes no distinction between caste and creed, which reflects he wide sweep of his mind and how it worked. Saughandhi of his story Hatak and Gopinath of his story Babu Gopinath are Hindus. The central figure of his story Toba Tek Singh is a Sikh while Sultana of Kali Shalwar is a Muslilm. Mozel is a Jew and Mummy is a Christian. The woman of Sarak Ke Kinare has an affinity with all religions. She is the primeval daughter of Eve, having no religious label.
Sadat Hasan Manto, a very popular Urdu writer, lived a trying life. All through his life his works were constantly judged, penalised or even banned. But today over forty years later, his works are hailed as landmark in Urdu literature.
Dealing with a variety of themes, mostly reflecting his current mental well being, his works include short stories, novels, plays especially for radio and sketches. Dhuan, Kali Shalwar and Thanda Ghosht ka Tukda are some of his more (in)famous works.
The book per se, does not do justice to the phenomenon called Manto. It moves back and forth with the subject matter in the book not quite properly organised therefore one sees a lot of repetition of information which could have been woven in much more skillfully.
The demarcations or categories listed are in some places quite abstract. His stint with the Mumbai film industry ( I could not tell how long it lasted) but was very fleetingly mentioned, only to be measured by the number of people he called his "friends". Also Manto, according to the book, valued friendship a great deal but depsite this the friends who perhap had a negative influence on him are not mentioned at all. Though this could be intentional, his erratic mood swings, attributed to his friends, are not suffiently explained.
But you do get to know a lot about Manto's life - his inspirations, his loves, his abject poverty on some days, his pride and his love for his family. One comes away feeling like it is a narrative about Manto's life than the writer actually getting under Manto's skin.
Some particularly nice lines:
He makes no distinction between caste and creed, which reflects he wide sweep of his mind and how it worked. Saughandhi of his story Hatak and Gopinath of his story Babu Gopinath are Hindus. The central figure of his story Toba Tek Singh is a Sikh while Sultana of Kali Shalwar is a Muslilm. Mozel is a Jew and Mummy is a Christian. The woman of Sarak Ke Kinare has an affinity with all religions. She is the primeval daughter of Eve, having no religious label.
# posted by Janaki @ 4:12 pm 
Comments:
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:-) babe, i suspect his mood swings might have had something to do with the copious amounts of alcohol.
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