Actor Rasika Dugal, who plays Safia, the wife of Manto in the eponymously named film, believes that the writer is more than ever relevant in the polarised times that we live in, says Saimi Sattar
For the longest of time, actor Rasika Dugal had been in love with the writings of Manto. And when the role of Safiya was offered to her, she had just started learning to read and write Urdu. “When Nandita (Das) offered me the role, it seemed to be poetic justice,” says the petite 33-year-old who plays Saadat Hasan Manto’s wife in Manto.
There were reasons for Dugal being enamoured of his writings which made her say yes to the role. “I really like his stand on the freedom of speech. In the 21st century, we no longer need heroes of free speech and you expect to take it for granted but the truth is it is increasingly threatened these days. By being a part of this film, I am responding to the circumstances which are happening around me,” she reasons.
She believes that more than ever, Manto is relevant today when people are being lynched for speaking up. “I can speak for myself that a Manto a day keeps me going. It inspires me that I should never give up speaking my mind. But I should temper my fearlessness with kindness and sensitivity and leave room for discourse and discussion and not shut out other voices. There should be space for conversation which is so important when the country is witnessing extreme polarisation,” she says passionately.
There is one more reason why Dugal likes Manto’s works. “The way women are etched out in his stories and the way they have been humanised. You have to see the innocence of Sarita who just wanted to sit in a car in 10 Rupaye or the sex worker 100 Watt Bulb whose only desire is to get a good night’s sleep to know how well he understood women. Given a chance, I would like to play all of these characters as these are real women,” she says.
This, she feels, is in stark contrast to women’s portrayal in contemporary cultures. “We are falling into a stereotype as a reaction to another stereotype. We need to have nuances in portrayal of characters. It is important that you understand a woman’s character does not exist to tittiliate or to feel sorry for,” she says.
There are other ways that Manto resonates in her life. Dugal was moved by his stories in a personal way because her family too had faced displacement during Partition. “During the Second World War, my grandparents were forced to move from Burma to Rawalpindi and when the Partition took place, they moved back to Burma again. The grief of being displaced, what it does to pride and memories, is similar,” she says and adds that memory is a subjective thing wherein two people might remember the same episode differently. “My grandfather and grandmother have different memories and takeaways. My grandfather did not have a job and my grandmother was pregnant which made her recall the hard times that she had. But my grandfather only remembered the pregnancy and glossed over his joblessness,” she says.
Of course signing up for Manto had other perks as well. “It was legitimising my hobby. I could say that I was reading Manto because I was preparing for a role.”
Being in awe of a real life character has its perils, moreso for an actor. “I had to convince myself for the longest of time that he was my partner, so I could not be in awe of Manto since I was living with him,” she says and goes on to add, “It is very intriguing what a caregiver or a person who supports or looks after the house is going through in relation to a person who is in the public eye. There was often a backlash from the society against Manto. Then there were cases of obscenity against him. Sometimes his stories didn’t sell and he turned into an alcoholic, which meant that Safia lived through a lot,” says the actor, her voice tender but not lacking in spine, much like the character that she plays.
Even though Manto wrote prolifically and women often were the centre of his stories, there are not many references to Safia. “There are really a very few essays where she is mentioned. He talks about his arranged marriage to Safia in 1936 in an essay titled, Meri Shaadi (My Wedding). Then there is one chapter in the book Ganjay Farishtay (Bald Angels) called Nargis which talks about how Safia and her sister used to make crank calls to the legendary actress as they were in awe of her. Later, they became friends,” says the actor, last seen by the Hindi film-viewing audience in Qissa. There are also references to Safia by writer Ismat Chugtai, who along with Manto, was tried for obscentiy for her controversial story Lihaaf.
“Nandita made it easier for me as she had already met Safia and Manto’s daughters, Nighat, Nusrat and Nuzhat as well as Safia’s sister, Zakia. Nighat apa was nine years when she lost her father, so they do not remember much about Manto. But when they think of Safia, there is a lot of anecdotal information which is beautifully incorporated into the script,” she says and adds, “Moreover a talented director and a good script aids you.”
Of course, the biggest compliment for Dugal was when the eldest of the writer’s children compared her to Safia. “When I spoke to Nuzhat Apa, she said I looked like her mother, which overwhelmed me. We tried to stylise the look according to the photograph of her sitting with Manto in a garden,” she says.
But while getting the look was a matter of styling it right, getting into the skin of the character was something that Dugal did. “I can speculate how she felt and I hope that through me the audience can feel Safia’s pain and that of Manto in her and vice versa. I also want to portray the idea that there is a lot of strength in being vulnerable rather than in screaming out,” she says.
And therein lies the line that Manto stood for all the 43 years of his short life — in defence of free speech.