The filmy chronicler

The book celebrates Abbas by showing how this "boy from Panipat, land of Sufis, land of battles" introduced the small-town sensibilities to Indian cinema.

Legendary filmmaker, screenwriter, novelist and film critic Khwaja Ahmad Abbas wrote the screenplay for the Chetan Anand-directed Neecha Nagar (1946), which became the first Indian film to win the prestigious Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. He also won four National Film Awards — for Jagte Raho (1956), Shehar Aur Sapna (1963), Saat Hindustani (1969), and Do Boond Pani (1971) — and launched the star of the millennium Amitabh Bachchan, who called the late artiste “Mamujaan”.

Being both an insider and outsider, Abbas wrote extensively on cinema, raised critical questions about the increasing commercial interference in the art of moviemaking, and reviewed movies. It’s