“Book Descriptions: Masooma, published in 1962, may well be regarded as a work that celebrates all of Ismat Chughtai s talents as a writer. Perhaps her darkest novel, a narrative of lost hope and endless cycles of corruption and injustice, it traces the journey of Masooma, a young woman from a respectable Muslim family who becomes embroiled in a game of exploitation and treachery and becomes Nilofar, a commodity that can be easily bought and sold. Once again, in telling Masooma s story, Chughtai cuts open the underbelly of India s political landscape and the underpinnings of the Bombay film world to reveal their shadowy and unsavoury side.” DRIVE