To Manto with Love from Harish Narang, Nandita Das and Ketan Mehta

French novelist, playwright and poet Francois Mauriac has famously said “Tell me what you read and I’ll tell you who you are. It’s true enough, but I’d know you better if you told me what you read.” Saadat Hasan Manto has always been read both by ordinary readers and experts. His stories, often available in cheap editions with garish covers, have been sold on pavements, and discussed in high- falutin academic jargon. But there certainly has been a renewed interest in Manto’s writings after his birth centenary in 2012. 1 Talking about India, in that year a number of big events on Manto were organised where many Indian critics tried to claim their Manto, or at any rate expressed the nostalgia of the times Manto was in India. ‘What if Manto had not gone to the other side of the border’ often haunted the minds of Manto’s Indian lovers. Taking note of a sudden interest in Manto, Urdu critic Khalid Alvi, who with Vibha Chauhan has translated and put together a book titled Manto-Saheb: Friends and Enemies on the Great Maverick (Speaking Tiger, 2018), wittily described the flurry of activities on Manto as ‘Mantogardi’ in an informal chat with me. Not only literary critics, but filmmakers also discovered their interest in Manto. Nandita Das started work on her film Manto in 2012 which was finally released in 2018. Ketan Mehta made his short film Toba Tek Singh which was screened in 2017. Rahat Kazmi’s Mantostaan , basing its story on four stories of Manto, appeared in 2017. Films further kindled the interest of many in Manto’s maverick personality and writings.