The narrative canvas of Manto, actress Nandita Das’ second film as a director, is separated by over half a century from that of her first, Firaaq (2008). But the two cinematic essays are bound together in spirit and substance. Both deal with the repercussions of sectarian violence on ordinary and not so ordinary people.
Based in the writer-director’s own words, “on a thousand true stories”, Firaaq probed the aftermath of the 2002 Gujarat riots as manifested in the lives of common men and women who bore the brunt. . .
