Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c10.s2.t33: K A Abbas
Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c10.s2.t33
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K A Abbas
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K A Abbas (Khwaja Ahmed Abbas, June 7, 1914 – June 1, 1987) was a progressive novelist in the Urdu and Hindi languages. He was also a film director, screenwriter and a journalist, who also wrote a lot of works in English and published dozens of books in his lifetime. Born in Panipat, north of Delhi, Abbas completed his education in 1935 from Aligarh Muslim University and then worked in the Bombay film company. He published his first short story collection *A Girl* in 1937 and his first screenplay *Naya Sansar* in 1941. Based on the story of Dwarkanath S. Kotnis, he delivered the reportage “*...and One Did Not Come Back!*” in 1944 which was scripted into the film *The Immortal Story of Dr Kotnis (Dr Kotnis ki Amar Kahani)* in 1946. His novel *Tomorrow Is Ours*, the novelette *Darkness and Brightness*, and short story collection *Inqilab* were published successively in 1945. Later in 1946, he made his directorial debut with a film depicting the Bengal famine of 1943, *Dharti Ke Lal (Children of the Earth)*, which became an enormous hit across the country. Apart from this, Abbas also released short story collection *Saffron* in 1948 and went on to write the screenplays *Awara* and *Zubaidah*. Films were his main focus in the 1960s.
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In 1952, Abbas paid a visit to China where he interviewed Chairman Mao. Upon his return he published the report *China Can Make It: Eye-witness Account of the Amazing Industrial Progress in New China* in the same year and the book *In the Image*
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DVD cover of the movie, ‘Awara’
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*of Mao Tse-Tung* in the following year. The *Abbas Short Story Collections*, translated from English into Chinese chiefly by Feng Jinxin, was published in China in 1957. His work *Blood and Stone* was included in *Selections of Indian Short Stories* compiled by Huang Baosheng in 1983, and *Cold Wave* was also translated into Chinese and included in the *Selections of Contemporary English Short Stories in India* to be released soon. His film *Awara* was already widely known to people all over China in the 1950s and once again aroused their interest in the 1980s. Even the interlude song of the film, sung by several singers in China, has won much affection of the Chinese people.
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(Xue Keqiao & Liu Jian)