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Manto
Critic reviews and ratings
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...Nandita brings out the best storyline, screenplay as well as performances from each of her actors. And of course, Nawazuddin makes the film a worth watch with Tahir and Rasika also giving their best to their respective roles.
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Nandita retains this honesty, and even celebrates it. She also spells out the consequences brutally. Her latest piece of work may not be for the masses, but that in no way robs her film of any merit.
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...is a highly watchable, immediately thought-provoking cinematic work that does not have to deliver sledgehammer blows quite in the manner of Manto's more confrontational stories.
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Writer/ Director Nandita Das has written a brilliant script depicting the rise and fall of a genius mind.
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It’s a film that will make you think, hurt you and will bring you back to your ideals.
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This film neatly weaves the stories he wrote into the life he lived and leave us wondering: is he the better storyteller or is God? Not commercial at all, but what a brilliant cinematic experience.
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The Bombay portions feel like clips of a highlight reel, but these scenes are buoyed by lyricism and spirit, even though the editing is choppy and some moments flash by too hurriedly. The Lahore half, more conventionally linear, feels eventually tedious, with hoary scenes of tormented creators and sick children.
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If Manto, the film, falls short of being a masterpiece, it's ironically because Nandita Das the filmmaker does not quite crack the Manto code herself: she doesn't quite see her subject with the same wholeness that Manto saw his people. This imperfection in the film, in a way, becomes the greatest tribute to Manto.
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In a time when the past is being manufactured to present an alternate reality, perhaps revisiting Manto's unflinching prose is what we direly need. That's the biggest takeaway from Das's biopic.
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It makes brave pronouncements on artistic freedom, religious violence and abject nationalism without losing sight of its investigative rigour— the film illustrates; it does not preach. Such mindfulness is often absent in our cinema, a medium so susceptible to rage, but Manto stands apart as a poignant exception.
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...Das makes her Manto a stirring, sensitive portrait of a tortured genius from an era seemingly long past yet tragically mirroring our troubled present.
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Manto is an authentic but jaded observation of a man who defied rules, challenged the status quo and changed the way one looked at life. Watch it for the director's flawless interweaving of Manto's poignant writing into her script and watch it for the words — spoken and unspoken.
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...while it evokes strong emotions for the genius’ idiosyncrasies, it fails to keep the audience in its grip throughout. There’s a mundane element that keeps popping up from time to time.
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Despite the best efforts of Nawazuddin Siddiqui to humanise his character, Manto’s inner workings remain elusive, emerging only in bits and pieces.
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A dispassionate narration might seem like an unbiased view but comes across as dry. It’s still a decent watch to get a glimpse of the man’s life.
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...in carving this supposedly objective portrait, she ends up with a colourless figure, and her clinical approach and lack of relevant anecdotes, takes away from what could’ve been an engaging tribute.
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There is a gap, a curious distance, between the vision and the execution, and much of the film, including Nawaz, resides in it.
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...has its moments and makes an important comment which is relevant in today’s times. However, the second half is weak and the film overall is too niche.
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