political film through the censor board. The film also shows the leftward journey of Khwaja Ahmad Abbas. He started writing when Gandhi was a formidable impression on him. Later Nehru’s romanticism charmed him and he wrote like an ardent Nehruite. But as the time passed, he, like other people of India, realized that the dreams and aspirations of the multitudes could not be realized in the democratic state built up after independence. The disillusionment of the people finds expression in his later writings and films like Naxalites.

In an interview with Indian Literary Review republished in An Evening In Lucknow edited by Suresh Kohli, Abbas expresses his concern that he felt while making the film The Naxalites:

I’m making The Naxalites– a very dangerous film. I feel scared of beingshot at from both sides, though I think it is neither a glorification nor a denigration of the naxalites.I only hope that the film is not misunderstood as my story “Sardarji” was.(Kohli.Appendix)

Abbas had firm faith in the ideals of democracy and would not hesitate in contesting the state if it tried to curb the democratic rights of people. When the Censor Board did not give U certificate to his film “A Tale of Four Cities”, he moved the Supreme Court of India to demand justice.

Abbas had made a documentary film called “A Tale of Four Cities” which attempted to portray the contrast between the life of the rich and the poor in the four principal cities of the- country. The film included certain shots of the red light