| 16 | | Worked on National Call, a New Delhi paper (1933); started Aligarh Opinion when studying law (1934); obtained law degree in 1935; political correspondent and later film critic for nationalist Bombay Chronicle, Bombay (1935- 47) praising Dieterle, Capra and esp. [[Shantaram]]. Wrote Indian journalism’s longest- running weekly political column, Last Page (1941-86), in Chronicle and Blitz. Best-known fiction (Zafran Ke Phool situated in Kashmir, Inquilab on communal violence) places him in younger generation of Urdu and Hindi writers with Ali Sardar Jafri and [[Ismat Chughtai]], whose work followed the [[PWA]] and drew sustenance from Nehruite socialism’s pre- Independence, anti-Fascist and anti-communal commitments. Founder member of [[IPTA]]’s all- India front (1943), to which he contributed two seminal plays: Yeh Amrit Hai and Zubeida. Entered film as publicist for [[Bombay Talkies]] (1936) to whom he sold his first screenplay, [[Naya Sansar]] (1941). First film, [[Dharti Ke Lal]], made under IPTA’s banner and drew on [[Bijon Bhattacharya]]’s classic play Nabanna (1944), dealing with the Bengal famine of 1943. |
| | 16 | Worked on National Call, a New Delhi paper (1933); started Aligarh Opinion when studying law (1934); obtained law degree in 1935; political correspondent and later film critic for nationalist Bombay Chronicle, Bombay (1935- 47) praising Dieterle, Capra and esp. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V._Shantaram|Shantaram]]. Wrote Indian journalism’s longest- running weekly political column, Last Page (1941-86), in Chronicle and Blitz. Best-known fiction (Zafran Ke Phool situated in Kashmir, Inquilab on communal violence) places him in younger generation of Urdu and Hindi writers with Ali Sardar Jafri and [[Ismat Chughtai]], whose work followed the [[PWA]] and drew sustenance from Nehruite socialism’s pre- Independence, anti-Fascist and anti-communal commitments. Founder member of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPTA|IPTA]]’s all- India front (1943), to which he contributed two seminal plays: Yeh Amrit Hai and Zubeida. Entered film as publicist for [[Bombay Talkies]] (1936) to whom he sold his first screenplay, [[Naya Sansar]] (1941). First film, [[Dharti Ke Lal]], made under IPTA’s banner and drew on [[Bijon Bhattacharya]]’s classic play Nabanna (1944), dealing with the Bengal famine of 1943. |