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Random freezes, missing sound and display glitches usually trace back to one bad driver. Find and replace yours safely.Free scan · under a minute“Hiptullha” was a private joke that became a shorthand for the warmth between writer Saadat Hasan Manto and actor Sundar Shyam Chadha, known as Shyam. Manto said he had spotted the unusual word in a cricket scorecard; later, when he used it to say a film sequence lacked force, Shyam recognized it from their earlier journey and teased him for bringing another “Mantoism” into the studio.
How Manto and Shyam became friends
Their friendship took shape in Bombay’s film world in the 1940s. Karan Bali’s accounts place early conversations at the High Nest building on Lady Jamshedji Road, and describe the bond flourishing at Bombay Talkies, where Manto worked and Shyam was pursuing an acting career. The studio and its surrounding social circle gave the two men room for the conversation, teasing and shared references that would later make “hiptullha” their own small piece of language.
Shyam’s career provides a brief frame for that period: the accounts cite his appearance in the Punjabi film Gowandhi (1942), Bombay Talkies’ Majboor (1948), and a breakthrough around 1949. Bali’s articles report that Shyam died on April 25, 1951, after a horse fell on him on the set of Shabistan. These dates and details are reported biographical chronology, rather than independently verified archival findings in the accounts cited here. Scroll.in’s account and Dawn’s account trace the friendship and its setting.
What did “hiptullha” mean to them?
In Manto’s telling, he came across “Hiptullha” in a cricket scorecard and guessed it might be a corruption of “Haibatullah.” The word had no fixed meaning in their friendship; its charm lay in its sound and in how Manto put it to use. During a script discussion, he used it to describe a sequence that did not have enough force. As Manto put it, “What I wanted to say was the sequence lacked force.”
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Shyam knew the word from a train journey with Manto and immediately recognized the joke. He teased Manto for carrying one of his “Mantoisms” into the film world. The phrase spread through their circle, which played with forms such as “hiptullhity” and “hiptullised.” In this context, “lacked hiptullha” meant that a scene lacked vigor or impact—not that the word had a precise technical definition.
The memoir behind the anecdote
Manto’s account of Shyam is called Murli Ki Dhun, also rendered “Shyam: Krishna’s Flute” in English, and is identified as a chapter in Stars from Another Sky. The vivid details commonly recounted about their friendship reach readers through later articles quoting or summarizing Manto, rather than through direct consultation of an original Urdu edition. Bali’s Scroll.in article and Dawn article identify the memoir account for readers who want to follow the story beyond the catchphrase.
A farewell at the port
When Manto left Bombay for Karachi, Shyam accompanied him to the port. In the passage attributed to Manto, Shyam filled the time before departure with funny stories, then called out as Manto boarded. Manto recalled: “When the gong was sounded, he shouted ‘Hiptullha!’ one last time and walked down the gangway, taking long, resolute strides. Never even once did he look back.” The farewell gives their invented word its most personal meaning: a familiar joke carried into a moment of separation.
Friendship under the pressure of Partition
The friendship was not untouched by the communal violence surrounding Partition. In a 2018 excerpt, Manash Firaq Bhattacharjee recounts Manto’s account of Shyam admitting that, after listening to stories of violence, he had briefly felt he could kill Manto. The reported words were: “Not now, but when I was listening to them…I could have killed you.” The passage makes clear how communal fear could intrude even into a close friendship; it should not be treated as the sole explanation for Manto’s move to Pakistan. Bhattacharjee’s discussion appeared in The Wire as an excerpt from Looking For the Nation: Towards Another Idea of India. Read the excerpt in The Wire.
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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsMemoir and film: two ways into the story
Manto’s memoir account and the 2018 film Manto offer different ways to encounter the friendship. The memoir is a written recollection, centered on everyday camaraderie and the shared word; the film is a dramatization situated within the broader Partition-era context. An article by actor Tahir Raj Bhasin about forming an on-screen friendship with Manto also quotes a letter attributed to Shyam: “I am not of a given place and do not wish to be of a given place. Come to think of it, life is my one and only sweetheart. As for people, they can go to hell.” The letter’s sentiment resonates with Shyam’s forceful independence, though it is distinct from the “hiptullha” anecdote. Tahir Raj Bhasin’s Quartz article discusses the screen portrayal and quotes the letter.
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