Rave reviews of 'Mantostaan' on international front

Now that Mantostaan is in theatres, filmmakers are happy that their mission Manto has been successful. The film has received lots of applause from across the world festivals and critics.

At a time and age when everyone is so quick to judge, so quick to point fingers, we need more people like Saadat Hasan Manto who saw things for what they are and never took sides, feels Rahat Kazmi, director of Mantostaan.

Speaking about Manto, the actress Sonal Sehgal shared her insight of the man and the emotions he conjured in his readers. "At the dawn of the long awaited freedom, his own province of Punjab was engulfed in hatred and carnage. Manto tried to understand the violence all around him by understanding human psych. He concluded that this turmoil was not a result of religious fanaticism or piety but human greed and man's astonishing capacity for bestiality."

"Mantostaan' the film also refrains from pinning blame or judgment. The four stories that form the screenplay adapted and directed by Rahat Kazmi - Thanda Gosht, Khol do, Assignment and Aakhri salute - are terrifying chronicles of how perverse and corrupt the society had become. Manto's characters do not toe the line of morality. There was madness and crime which the author explicitly writes about without hiding behind sentimentality or ideological blinders. Communal violence has nothing to do with religion. Which is what makes his stories so relevant today. It was the dark side of human nature that came to the fore. Manto wrote, "Don't say that one lakh Hindus and one lakh Muslims have died. Say that two lakh human beings have perished."

The film is directed by Rahat Kazmi, produced by Rahat Kazmi Films, Tariq Khan productions and Aditya Pratap Singh entertainments presented by Jitesh Kumar films & UFI productions in association with paylesser is in cinemas now.