Stars from Another Sky - Saadat Hasan Manto's book on the Bombay Film World of the 1940s

This book, ‘Stars from Another Sky,’ was first released in 1998, and I must have read it sometime between 1999 and 2000.  I was still at CIEFL, trying to complete my thesis.  I had read Manto’s short stories earlier, in Khalid Hasan’s excellent English translation (Kingdom’s End and Other Stories).  Some of these stories are so seared into your soul that you cannot forget them.  I was looking for something to read in between writing my thesis chapters.  I don’t remember where I was searching in the CIEFL library; I was not particularly looking to read more Manto stories, but somehow stumbled upon this book.  I was intrigued and happy to find out that this book contained profiles by Manto on the people (actors and others) of the Bombay film world of the 1940s.  The only names that I could clearly recognise were Ashok Kumar and Nargis, and Noor Jehan (more as a singer) and Shyam, distantly.  Manto’s brief bio in the book says, “In a literary, journalistic, radio-scripting and film-writing career spread over more than two decades, he produced twenty-two collections of short stories, one novel, five collections of radio plays, three collections of essays, two collections of personal sketches and many scripts for films.”  

 

Most of us usually think of Manto only as a short story writer, and his short stories are what we encounter for the first time when we start reading Manto.  That he was involved with the film world and wrote articles about film-people was a revelation to me.  I read the book with great interest and was taken into a different world.  I couldn’t find a copy of this book to buy then.  And then, this edition (the second) came out in 2010 and I was delighted to purchase a copy for myself and read all the articles once again.  This edition has a charming introduction by Jerry Pinto.  Pinto says ... “But then Manto tells us again and again of his role in the creation of that world.  He translated film pamphlets into Urdu, he wrote film scripts for several studios and even appeared in front of the camera despite acute stage fright.  His involvement with cinema did not allow him the highbrowed tone of the critic.  In fact, these pieces often do not deal very much with the work of the person who is being profiled ... It is as if Manto was not writing about the film world, no, not even about film stars from another sky; he was writing about himself.”