‘Ganjay Farishtay’ (Bald Angels) is a podcast series in Urdu based on Saadat Hasan Manto’s sketches and presented by broadcaster Pervaiz Alam.

Saadat Hasan Manto (1912-1955), one of the greatest short-story writers in South Asia, published about 20 collections of short stories in Urdu. Being a multi-faceted author, he went on to write five collections of radio dramas, three of essays, two of sketches, one novel, and a number of stories and screenplays for Bombay’s Hindi film industry in the 1940s.

Manto wrote brutally scathing sketches of some of his best friends, film stars and writers of his time, leading to several controversies and gossips.

“Manto’s writing has a real-life feel to it, almost as though he is speaking to his readers and making his subjects come alive — warts and all. In the evocatively titled ‘Ganjay Farishtay’, he is not always laudatory about his subjects as, for instance, in the darkly witty sketch titled ‘Teen Golay’ about Miraji,” says Dr Rakhshanda Jalil, Writer, Translator and Literary Historian.

Manto penned profiles of Ismat Chughtai, Ashok Kumar, Pari Chahra Nasim Bano, Noor Jahan, Miraji, Nargis, Agha Hashr Kashmiri and many others.