he very proudly maintained his position as a socially committed writer. As a writer and film maker he was aware of the criticism he was attracting by choosing the kind of themes for his films and stories he did but he believed in the course of life he had chosen and was more than happy to pay whatever price he had to pay for that. An eminent Film-maker M.S.Sathyu writes about Abbas Sahab’s progressive leanings in a piece written for the new edition of I AM Not An Island edited by Suresh Kohli:

Abbas Saheb was a man dedicated to some meaningful cinema even though he wrote for the great entertainer, Raj Kapoor. He was also part of the PWA

( Progressive Writers Association) ….Abbas Saheb was one of thefounder members of IPTA( Indian Peoples’ Theatre Association).He had written and directed a film ,Dharti Ke Lal under the IPTA banner. Many of the IPTA artists participated in this film. Dharti Ke Lal was a highly stylized film.In fact this film inspired Chetan Anand to make Neecha Nagar which won first ever Cannes award. Later this trend was noticed in Zia Sarhadi’s Hum Log, Balraj Sahni’s debut film. The acting was highly stylized. Many years later Bimal Roy made Do Bigha Zameen which also belongs to the same genre. Therefore, the credit for such meaningful films coming out of certain political and ideological leaning goes to Abbas Saheb who could be dubbed somewhat of a pioneer. (Kohli, XI)

Abbas was criticized by the critics as a propagandist and pamphleteer.