‘An Evening in
Lucknow’ is an anthology of short stories written by K. A. Abbas. He wasn’t
only a writer of short stories; well he was also a director, producer, and
screenplay writer of many Hindi films like Joker, Awara, Dharti Ke Lal etc. He
is still celebrated for giving a break to legendary actor Amitabh Bachan in
‘Saat Hindustani’ film, way back in 1969.
As well, K. A.
Abbas is a maternal grandfather of Shahid Kapoor. ‘Sparrows’ is a famous short
story written by him and it remained in the world’s best short stories’ column
for many years, just like Mulk Raj Anand’s ‘The Lost Child’. Mulk Raj Anand and
K.A. Abbas were ally and known to each other as they were the English writers
of early India. In 1947 Mulk Raj Anand wrote a letter to Mr. Abbas praising his
work regarding ‘Sparrows’ – a short story.
K. A.
Abbas was an integral part of Bollywood; he directed and wrote many a
movie. He worked with V. Shantaram too. Many of his short stories have been
converted into screen plays. He lived in Bombay. He started his career as a
journalist in pre-independent India.
The streak in
his work was about highlighting the pains of rural people or poor. Most of his
work is based on rural people; his main protagonists come from only rural India
or at times from urban cities like Bombay and Delhi.
K. A. Abbas
remained in controversy by writing ‘Sardarji’, a short story. Through K. A.
Abbas, readers can gain insights about the then contemporary aspects,
highlights, politics, environment and old cinema of India. On the whole, he
wrote 73 books.
Some stories
of him dates back to one-India, by reading them one can collect the customs and
traditions of characters post-independence and partition. His novels and short
stories provide a good scope of research and study thread for aspiring writers
and film-makers of modern India.
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