5. HABIB TANVIR
A theatre person with a
difference. Director, actor,
playwright, poet - all rolled into
one. A lively conversationalist
with a sonorous voice and a wide
range of interests. And, above
all, the director who brought the
rich dramatic and musical
traditions of Chattisgarh to
national and international
attention.
6. LIFE SKETCH
● Born on September 1, in Raipur,
Chhattisgarh, Habib Ahmed Khan changed
his name to Tanvir after he started writing
poetry.
● After having studied in Aligarh Muslim
University, he moved to Bombay in 1945
where he got actively involved with the
Indian People’s Theatre Association and
the Progressive Writers Assocition, as a
writer, actor, and journalist.
● Nine years later he moved to Delhi, where
he delivered his major productions.
7. ● He was not only a theatre personality, but an
organic cultural personality; one of the greatest
products of the Marxist cultural movement in
India.
● His lifelong association with IPTA and PWA
shaped his ideological orientation and
unflinching commitment to the development of
a cultural movement dedicated to social change.
● Common Chhatisgarhi villagers and their art
traditions were the biggest source of his
theatrical arsenal - from costumes, music,
dances, conversational styles, themes to actors
and languages.
8. ● For him, true “theatre of the
people” existed in the villages,
which he strived to bring to the
urban “educated”, employing
both folk performers as actors
alongside urban actors.
● He was the last of pioneering
actors-managers in Indian
theatre, which included Sisir
Bhaduri, Utpal Dutt, and
Prithviraj Kapoor.
● Often he managed plays with a
mammoth cast, such as
Charandas Chor (72 people)
and Agra Bazaar (52 people).
9. PLAYS
● Agra Bazaar (1954)
● Shatranj Ke Mohrey (1954)
● Charandas Chor (1975)
● Bahadur Kalarin (1978)
● Jis Lahore Nai Dekhya (1990)
● The Broken Bridge (1995)
● Zahreeli Hawa (2002)
SOME OF HIS SIGNIFICANT WORKS:
FILMOGRAPHY
● Foot Path (1953)
● Charandas Chor (1975)
● Gandhi - Indian Barrister (1982)
● Hero Hiralal (1988)
● Sardar (1993)
● Mangal Pandey: The Rising -
Bahadur Shah Zafar (2005)
10. WRITINGS BY HABIB
TANVIR
GHAZALS:
● Main nahin ja paunga yaro su-e-gulzar abhi
● Be-mahal hai guftugu hain be-asar ashaar
abhi
● Khalish-o-soz-figar hi di
NAZM:
● Nila Aasman
● Wapsi
● Tumhare ganw se jo rasta nikalta hai Habib started writing poetry using
his pen name TAKHALLUZ.
11. LEGACY
● In 2010, at the 12th Bharat Rang
Mahotsav, the annual theatre festival
of National School of Drama, Delhi,
a tribute exhibition dedicated to life,
works, and theatre of Habib Tanvir
along with B.V.Karanth was
displayed.
● The 13th Bharat Rang Mahotsav
opened with an Assamese adaptation
of his classic play Charandas Chor,
directed by Anup Hazarika, NSD
graduate.
12. HONORS AND
AWARDS
He was the recipient of:
● Sangeet Natak Academy Award
(2005)
● Jawaharlal Nehru fellowship
(1979)
● Padma Shri (1983)
● Padma Bhushan (2002)
among other national and international
awards during his lifetime
14. SAADAT HASAN
MANTO
● Born on May 11,1912 in British India, in
Samrala, Ludhiana, Punjab, after partition
now in Pakistan, & died on January 18,
1955 in Lahore Pakistan due to cirrhosis of
the liver.
● Born in Muslim barrister family, who were
Kashmiri traders who settled in Amritsar
with legal profession.
● His Father Ghulam Hassan – Session
Judge in local court, & mother Sardar
Begum – Pathan ancestor & second wife
of his father.
15. EDUCATION
● He received his early education from
M.O.A (Muslim Anglo Oriental) High
School, Amritsar, but failed twice in
matriculate due to science subjects. After
dropping it for Urdu & Persian with much
struggle he qualified it in 1931, when his
father passed away.
● Got Admitted in, Hindu Sabha College,
after which a turning point came to his life
when he was 21, in 1933 he met Abdul
Bari Alig (Scholar & polemic writer).
16. Manto’s life like the fiction written
by him was not only interesting but
also brief. If the non-speaking
Urdu class identifies Urdu poetry
with Ghalib, then for fiction their
point of reference is Manto.
17. In his short-lived life of 42 years,
he has produced :
● over 22 collections of short
stories
● three collections of essays
● five series of radio plays
● two groups of personal
sketches
● a novel
● and also a chunk of film
scripts
18. MAJOR WORKS OF MANTO:
RADIO
● In 1941, he joined the Urdu Service of
All India Radio. It was a golden
period that came very fruitful for him.
● Saadat Hasan Manto penned radio
plays, which listed as Aao, Manto Kay
Dramay,Teen Aurtein and Janaze.
● In 1943, he started writing short
stories following the title in Manto Ke
Mazamin and Manto ke Afsane.
SHORT STORIES AND FILMS
● His first official short story.
“Tamasha” in 1934.
● A weekly literary journal called
“Khlaq”
● He worked on multiple films, such
as, Shikari, Aatth Din, and Mirza
Ghalib.
● In 1945, short stories- Kaalo
Shalwar, Dhuan, Bu, Chugd, etc
19. SIGNIFICANT
WORKS OF SAADAT
● Toba Tek Singh is about the traumatic
implications of the absurdity that
characterizes statist procedures that seek
to validate national identities by
narrowly conflating them with the
religious ones.
● Thanda Gosht meat is based on the idea
that the rape of a corpse is symbolic of
the blindness of exertion of power and
control , not only over women , but also
over members of other communities
20. LEGACY
● Danish Iqbal's stage Play Ek Kutte Ki Kahani
presented Manto in a new perspective on occasion
of his birth centenary.
● In 2015, Pakistani actor and director Samad
Khoosat made and released a movie, “Manto”
based on the life of Manto.
● In 2018, the British Broadcasting Corporation
named the work Toba Tek Singh among the 100
stories that shaped the world, alongside works by
authors like Homer and Virginia Woolf.
● The 2018 film Manto, made by Nandita Das and
starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui, is a Bollywood film
based on the life of Manto.
● On 11 May 2020, Google celebrated his 108th
birthday with a Google Doodle.
22. BEGUM AKHTAR
There have not been many like
Begum Akhtar, and history has not
been very kind to those who have
succeeded. Often the details of their
life, their personal and professional
hardships are brushed under the
carpet. But sooner or later, someone
writes or speaks about them in all its
richness, and we get to bask in their
reflected glory.
23. LIFE SKETCH
● born on 7th October, 1914 in
Faizabad town of Uttar Pradesh.
● Originally her name was Akhtari bai
Faizabadi, though she was much
popular as Begum Akhtar.
● She showed interest in music at a
very young age and was sent to train
under the great Sarangi player, Ustad
Imdad Khan.
● At the tender age of fifteen, she gave
her first public performance.
24. The Queen of Ghazals Who Turned Her Pain Into Soul-Stirring Music
● also known as Mallika-e-Ghazal (The Queen of Ghazals), it was a series of
personal tragedies that formed the basis of her legendary vocal performances.
● Her magic lay in not merely expressing this pain, love and hope, but translating
these emotions in ways that future generations would empathise with and
understand.
● Rita Ganguly, a student of the great Begum Akhtar, once said that her soulful voice
emerged from the depth and years of “loneliness, pain, suppression and silence.”
● It was her voice which brought life and a certain soul to the remarkable poetry of
literary gaints like Mirza Ghalib, Kaifi Azmi, Shakil Badayuni, Mir Taqi Mir and
Jigar Moradabadi.
● It was music which had literally kept her alive amidst a series of personal tragedies
until it finally consumed her.
25. CAREER
● In 1949, she returned to record at the
Lucknow Radio station and sang three
Ghazel's and a Dadra.
● Begum Akhtar acted in a few hindi movies
in the 1930s East India Company of
Calcutta approaches her to act in ‘EK DIN
KA BADSHAH’ and ‘NAL DAMAYANTI’
in 1933.
● She sang her songs herself in all her films
she continue acting in the following years,
she was approached by the famous producer
director Mehboob Khan to act in ‘Roti’
which was released in 1942 Roti contained
three of her ghazals.
26. MAJOR WORKS OF BEGUM AKHTAR
FILMOGRAPHY
● King of a Day (1933)
● Mumtaz Begum (1934)
● Ameena (1934)
● Naseeb ka Chakkar (1936)
● Jalsaghar- Directed by Satyajit
Ray and credited by Begum
Akhtar (1958)
DISCOGRAPHY
● Begum Akhtar has nearly four
hundred songs to her credit.
● Naseeb Ka Chakkar – "Kalyug
Hai Jabse Aaya Maya Ne..."
● Dana Pani | Mohan Junior-
"Ishq Mujhe Aur Kuchh To
Yaad Nahi..."
● Ehsaan - "Hamen dil mein
basaa bhi lo…”
27. HONOR AND AWARDS
● Padma Shri - 1968
● Sangeet Natak Akademi
Award - 1972
● Padma Bhushan - 1975
