Indian actor and filmmaker Nandita Das visited Bangladesh for the second time to attend the Eighth Dhaka Literary Festival. However, this time she does not just come as a speaker. This year her film ‘Manto,’ was screened at the festival.
Written and directed by the actress herself, and set in the 1940s, ‘Manto’ tells the life story of Indo-Pakistani author Saadat Hasan Manto.
In an exclusive interview with Bangla Tribune’s Sheriff Al Sire, Nandita reveals why most of her films address issues such as partition and discrimination.
“These are very instinctive choices,” she said adding that discrimination in any form had always troubled her.
When asked whether Manto belonged to India or Pakistan, Nandita said that the author was both equally and calling him just Indian or just Pakistani is doing a great disservice to him.
According to her, a more fitting title for him would be the “greatest short story writer in South Asia”.
Given that the screenplay was drawn from Manto’s life as well as his writings, the two-hour film portrays the internal trauma of the writer in whose life the boundaries between fact and fiction were often blurred.
Talking about the power of cinema, Nandita said that emotions in the cinemas are always universal and relatable, adding, “It transcends all boundaries.”