films of the 21st century. Journalist and occasional documentary maker John Dayal described the style of Abbas’s film making as one featuring Nehruvian aesthetics. In his article published in Deccan Herald, April 3, 1987, a few months before the death of Abbas he wrote:

This Nehruvian aesthetics has been apparent in the several major interventions that Abbas has made in the history of Indian cinema, and has evolved consistently even when Abbas has become party to mainstream cinema as script-writer for men such as Raj Kapoor. Each intervention has become a landmark; a seminal contribution. And almost every intervention has given Indian cinema a major actor or image. Awara created the now legendary Raj Kapoor hobo image. Dharti Ke Lal sloganeered unity despite famine, Saat Hindustani gave Amitabh Bachchanand then Mithun Chakraborthy, Do Boond Pani a new development verite. Munna a new concept in cinema with the child, even Bobby some sort of a new romanticism, and above all, ShaharAur Sapna (The City and the Dream) which, despite the technical limitations of its time and the honest naivete of its maker, remains one of the most worthwhile pieces of realism and social comment in Indian cinema Long before the Indian new wave, and long before NFDC.(http://bargad.org/2012/06/07/khwaja-ahmed-abbas/)

Khwaja Ahmed Abbas considers Shahar Aur Sapna (1963) as his best film. Though it won a National Award, Abbas had a tough time in getting the Censor Board to clear it. The film depicts the struggle of a young man from a village who comes to Bombay in search of employment.