Dharti Ke Lal

9/19/2026

# *Dharti Ke Lal* (1946) **Director:** Khwaja Ahmad Abbas **Languages:** Hindi, Urdu **Initial Release:** 1946 **Screenplay:** Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, Bijon Bhattacharya, Krishan Chander **Story:** Bijon Bhattacharya, Krishan Chander **Music:** Ravi Shankar **Starring:** Balraj Sahni, Tripti Mitra, Sombhu Mitra **Review by Dr Usman Latif Khawaja** K. A. Abbas was a true intellectual, and his maiden movie is ample evidence of that. His ideology of a social framework in colonial India, particularly the divide between the urban and rural worlds, remains as cohesive and contemporary as it was in 1946. The film presents a privileged class preying like jackals upon the carcasses of the perished in a poignantly painted picture of a man-made famine, which was a true holocaus