In his early days, he worked as a proofreader, he was immediately placed in league of leading writers of his times. In his prolific career, spanning four decades, he wrote over three hundred stories, including, "Maans Ka Dariya", "Neeli Jheel" and "Kasbe Ka Aadmi", published over ten collections of short stories, ten novels most prominent among them being, Ek Sadak Sattawan Galiyan, Laute Huye Musafir, Kaali Aandhi, Aagami Ateet, Registan and Kitne Pakistan, apart from 35 other literary works in different genres ranging from literary criticism, travelogue, memoirs, to socio-cultural commentary.
Films He moved to Bombay in the 1970s and started writing scripts and dialogues for Hindi films, in the next decade or so, he worked for over 75 feature films, which include films like
Gulzar's
Aandhi, based on his novel Kaali Aandhi,
Mausam;
Basu Chatterjee,
Chhoti Si Baat,
Rang Birangi and
Ravi Chopra's thriller,
The Burning Train. In fact, reminiscing his works noted poet-director,
Gulzar said that "in 'Kitne Pakistan'... there is a description where a handkerchief falls off the bridge; I always used to tell him that I could write a complete short story on this one line only.". He won the 1979
Filmfare Award for Best Screenplay for
Pati Patni Aur Woh, directed by
B. R. Chopra.
Television By the late 1970s, he had made his first short TV film the
"Jamuna Bazar", near river
Yamuna in Delhi, and soon switched to television script-writing, and eventually became the 'Additional Director General' of
Doordarshan, India's national television channel, (1980–82), during his tenure, in a matter of 24 months, the entire nation was connected with television network. Over the years, he wrote stories in ten TV serials including
Chandrakanta,
Aakash Ganga,
Yug and
Betal Pachisi, as well as popular serials based on literary works such as
Darpan and
Ek Kahani. He hosted a popular talk show on
Doordarshan,
Parikrama, started a weekly literary show,
Patrika, and also produced and directed several television programs and investigative documentaries on social and political issues for
Doordarshan.
Later years He was awarded the 2003
Sahitya Akademi Award for his novel based on the
Partition of India in 1947,
Kitne Pakistan (literally
How Many Pakistans? but translated in English as
Partitions), which explored the way nations fracture, through an allegorical court trial, wherein historical and political figures are present as witnesses, and the
Padma Bhushan in 2005. He died on 27 January 2007 at
Faridabad following a heart attack, after being in poor health for several years. A collection of his short stories in English translation,
Not Flowers of Henna, was released in 2007. == Literary works ==