Manto teaser promises hard-hitting tale of genius and suffering as Nawzuddin Siddiqui plays Urdu poet perfectly

Nandita Das’ Manto released a teaser for the Nawazuddin Siddiqui-starrer and if those clips are any indication, this could be a really special film. Written and directed by actress-filmmaker Nandita Das, the film is a biographical on controversial Urdu writer Saadat Hasan Manto. The teaser is largely focused on Manto whom Siddiqui portrays as an unabashed thinker who says and writes what he thinks. It is also clear that his family will be a significant part of the film as the understated Rasika Dugal plays the suffering wife. The court case against his writings and his downward spiral as he struggles with alcoholism find mention as well.

Manto follows four tumultuous years of the writer’s life and that of the two countries he inhabits – India and Pakistan. It portrays his move to Lahore after partition and how finds himself bereft of friends and unable to find takers for his writings. The film is already making waves on the international circuit as it has made its way to the Un Certain Regard segment of the Cannes Film Festival. The film has an impressive star cast including Siddiqui as Manto and Dugal as his wife Safia. Other well-regarded actors like Rishi Kapoor, Ranvir Shorey, Paresh Rawal and Shashank Arora too play characters in the film.