Manto
Manto is a 2018 Indian Hindi-language biographical drama written and directed by Nandita Das about writer Saadat Hasan Manto during the Partition era, including censorship, displacement, alcoholism and social controversy.
Legal availability
Where to watch
Streaming availability can change. We only link to official platforms.
Credits and facts
Movie details
- Release date
- 21 September 2018
- Runtime
- 116 minutes
- Country
- India
- Languages
- Hindi, Urdu
- Genres
- Drama
- Director
- Nandita Das
- Writers
- Nandita Das
- Cast
- Nawazuddin Siddiqui as Saadat Hasan Manto, Tahir Raj Bhasin as Sunder Shyam, Rasika Dugal as Safia, Rajshri Deshpande as Ismat Chughtai
- Producers
- Vikrant Batra, Sanjeevkumar Nair, Ajit Andhare, Sandrine Brauer, Namrata Goyal, Nandita Das, Sameer Dixit, Jatish Varma
- Production company
- Viacom18 Motion Pictures; HP Studios; FilmStoc; Nandita Das Initiatives
Spoiler-free synopsis
In the years surrounding the Partition of India, acclaimed Urdu writer Saadat Hasan Manto confronts censorship, obscenity trials, communal violence and the dislocation of moving from Bombay to Lahore. His fierce commitment to writing honestly about society strains friendships and family life as political upheaval, financial pressure and increasing alcohol dependence weigh on him.
For families
Editorial guidance
Context for discussing the story and deciding whether it fits your household.
Positive messages
Constructive themes or examples.Constructive discussion around Manto can focus on empathy, responsibility, honesty and the consequences of characters’ choices. Families can compare how people respond to pressure, relationships, conflict and social expectations, and identify moments where cooperation, courage, perseverance or compassion matter. Where characters make flawed decisions, parents can contrast those choices with safer, fairer or more respectful alternatives and distinguish dramatic storytelling from appropriate real-world behaviour.
Negative behaviours
Conduct that may need context.The principal concern identified for Manto is Partition violence and displacement, alcoholism, strong social and sexual themes, censorship, adult language and emotional deterioration. Characters may also make risky, deceptive, aggressive, impulsive or emotionally harmful choices that younger viewers could misread without context. Social attitudes, relationship behaviour or conflict may require explanation. Because a complete scene-by-scene audit was not available for every sequence, this guide does not mark violence, sexual material, harsh language, substance use or disturbing themes as absent merely because a catalog source is silent.
Topics to discuss
Conversation starters after viewing.Parents can discuss which choices in Manto protect other people and which create harm, whether consequences feel fair, and how the story handles trust, relationships and responsibility. Another useful topic is media literacy: an official CBFC certificate, an OTT platform label and an editorial age recommendation serve different purposes. For older children and teenagers, ask how the film’s genre and cultural context shape conflict, humour, romance, fear or social commentary and what would work differently in real life.
Final recommendation
Our family-viewing take
Suggested minimum age: 16+. The family-viewing verdict is use_caution; for children it is no, for teenagers yes, and for parents yes. The strongest concerns are Partition violence and displacement, alcoholism, strong social and sexual themes, censorship, adult language and emotional deterioration. Because an exact title-specific Indian CBFC page and a complete scene-by-scene advisory were not verified for this batch record, this is a cautious editorial recommendation. Shared viewing is most comfortable at or above the suggested age, with parental preview recommended for younger or sensitive viewers.
Continue browsing
More Like This
Automatically matched using shared tags, genres, language, family suitability, and release period.
Help improve this guide
Was this movie guide accurate?
One tap is enough. We store privacy-safe hashes for spam prevention and never publish visitor IP addresses.