Sutradhar presents Sa'adat Hasan Manto's stories about the Partition, performed by Vinay Varma, Deepti Girotra and Rahim Amirali Lalani.

About Play

Writer: Sa'adat Hasan Manto

Devised & Directed by Team Sutradhar

Cast: Vinay Varma, Deepti Girotra, Rahim Amirali Lalani

Synopsis :

First published in 1947 (the year that India was divided), Siyaah Haashiye is a collection of 32 cameos written by Sa'adat Hasan Manto, often referred to as 'the original enfant terrible of Urdu literature'. A man who had little regard for the societal or literary norms of any time, Manto tried to capture the truth of humanity and its downfall as he saw it.

Siyaah Haashiye are vignettes of the partition of India; written with the same dark blood that oozed from both sides on a land that was ripped to pieces and has never quite managed to pull itself together yet. More than 60 years have passed; 55 since Manto himself was laid to rest but the bloodstains of that massacre still haunt the generations on both sides of the divide: dates have changed; places have changed and so have names but the nature of man remains the same; the struggle against our own self continues.

A medley of 32 short and very short stories based on the events that took place during partition. The stories illustrate the heinous and mercenary stupidity to which human beings can stoop to when they get a chance. The shortness of the stories creates the impression that we are entering a war zone.

Presented partly in narrative and partly as a combination of narrative and performance, Siyaah Haashiye transports us to the morbid world of loot, killing and rape being committed in the name of religion.