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Manto (2018 film)

2018 film directed by Nandita Das

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 27, 2026
Entity authorityQ30610347 ↗
Source-derived summary

Manto is a 2018 Indian Hindi-language biographical drama film based on the life of the prominent Urdu author Saadat Hasan Manto, written and directed by Nandita Das. The film stars Nawazuddin Siddiqui in the title character of Indo-Pakistani, author and writer Saadat Hasan Manto. Tahir Raj Bhasin plays the 1940s Hindi film superstar Shyam. Shyam was Manto's friend, confidant, and inspiration for a number of stories. Rasika Dugal plays the role of Manto's wife, Safia. Manto is based on the 1940s post-Independence period of India. The film earned seven nominations at 64th Filmfare Awards including Best Film Critics, Best Actor Critics for Siddiqui.

The poster of the film was unveiled at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival. Das made a short film titled In Defence of Freedom, also starring Nawazuddin in the main role, and was released on YouTube on 23 March 2017. The film premiered at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival and released in Indian theatres on 21 September 2018.

Editorial summary

“Manto (2018 film)” enters the record as 2018 film directed by Nandita Das. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Manto, film and directed can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2018, 2017—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 2018. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Manto, film and directed.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Manto (2018 film)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Manto, film and directed provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q30610347. None of the 2 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2018 and 2017.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

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  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Manto (2018 film)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Manto (2018 film) primary sources, Manto (2018 film) archive and Manto research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Manto (2018 film)”?
  2. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Manto (2018 film)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.