Khwaja Ahmad Abbas
Khwaja Ahmad Abbas was born in Panipat, Punjab, British India (now Haryana, India). He was born in the home of celebrated Urdu poet, ‘Khwaja Altaf Husain Hali’, a student of Mirza Ghalib. His grandfather Khwaja Gulam Abbas was one of the chief rebels of the 1857 Rebellion movement, and the first martyr of Panipat to be blown from the mouth of a cannon.
Abbas’s father Ghulam-Us-Sibtain graduated from Aligarh Muslim University, was a tutor of a prince and a prosperous businessman, who modernised the preparation of Unani medicines. Abbas’s mother, ‘Masroor Khatoon’, was the daughter of Sajjad Husain, an enlightened educationist.
Abbas took his early education in ‘Hali Muslim High School’, which was established by his great grand father Hali.
He had his early education till 7th in Panipat. He was instructed to read the Arabic text of the Quran and his childhood dreams swung at the compulsive behest of his father. Abbas completed his matriculation at the age of fifteen. He did his B.A. with English literature in 1933 and LL.B. in 1935 from Aligarh Muslim University.
Abbas began his career as a journalist, when he joined ‘National Call’, a New Delhi based paper after his finishing his B.A.. Later while studying law in 1934, started ‘Aligarh Opinion’, India’s first university students’ weekly during the pre-independence period.
After completing his education at Aligarh Muslim University, Abbas joined the Bombay Chronicle. He occasionally served a film critic, but after the film critic of the paper died, he was made the editor of the film section.
He entered films as a part time publicist for Bombay Talkies in 1936 to whom he sold his first screenplay ‘Naya Sansar (1941)’.
While at the Bombay Chronicle, (1935-1947), he started a weekly column called ‘Last Page’, which he continued when he joined the Blitz magazine.
Meanwhile he had started writing scripts for other directors, Neecha Nagar for Chetan Anand and Dr. Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani for V. Shantaram.
In 1945, he made his directorial debut with a film based on the Bengal famine of 1943, Dharti Ke Lal (Children of the Earth) for the Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA).
In 1951, he founded his own production company called Naya Sansar, which consistently produced films that were socially relevant including, Anhonee, Munna and the National Film Award winner, Shehar Aur Sapna in 1964.
A prolific writer, and novelist, during his illustrious career spanning five decades, Abbas wrote over 73 books in English, Hindi and Urdu. Abbas was considered a leading light of the Urdu short story.
Abbas interviewed several renowned personalities in literary and non-literary fields, including the Russian Prime Minister Khrushchov, American President Roosevelt, Charlie Chaplin, Mao-Tse-Tung and Yuri Gagarin.
He went on to write scripts for Jagte Raho, and most of prominent Raj Kapoor films including Awaara, Shri 420, Mera Naam Joker, Bobby and Henna.
Khwaja Ahmad Abbas is considered one of pioneers of Indian parallel or neo-realistic cinema, having penned films like Neecha Nagar, Jagte Raho, Dharti Ke Lal, Awara, Saat Hindustani and Naya Sansar.
He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1969.