of the film industry. Nutan, who garnered a good response for her performance in the film, herself described it as one of her favorite projects. Also in 1958, Chughtai produced the Mahmood-Shyama starrer romance drama Lala Rukh. Chughtai continued writing short-stories during the time despite her commitment to film projects. Her fourth collection of short-stories Chui Mui (Touch-me-not) was released in 1952 to an enthusiastic response. The eponymous short-story has been noted for its "pertinent dissection of our society" and contesting the venerated tradition of motherhood, especially its equation of womanhood. Rafay Mahmood highlighted, in a 2014 editorial, the relevance of the story in the twenty-first century. Chui Mui was adapted for stage by Naseeruddin Shah as a part of a commemorative series Ismat Apa Kay Naam, with his daughter Heeba Shah playing the central character in the production. Success with writing novels (1961–90) Beginning in the 1960s, Chughtai wrote a total of eight novels, the first of which was Masooma (The Innocent Girl), published in 1962. The film follows the life of a young actress, Nilofar, who is forced to work as call girl to sustain her family once her father abandons them. Set in the Bombay of 1950s, the novel delves into the themes of sexual exploitation and social and economic injustice. Her next work, the 1966 novella Saudai (Obsession) was based on the screenplay of 1951 film Buzdil, which she co-wrote with Latif. Commentators have noted that Saudai could never shed its structure and still read like a screenplay despite Chughtai's efforts. Following a lukewarm reception for both Masooma and Saudai, Chughtai received significant praise for her fifth novel Dil ki Duniya (The Heart Breaks Free). Reviewing the novel, observers have placed it second only to Tedhi Lakeer in the canon of her work. The novel follows the lives of a varied group of women living in a conservative Muslim household in Uttar Pradesh. Dil Ki Duniya, much like Tedhi Lakeer, is autobiographical in nature as Chughtai drew heavily from her own childhood in Bahraich, Uttar Pradesh. Comparing the two, Hussein says, "if Tedhi Lakeer impressed me with its boldness, range and its credentials as a major novel, Dil ki Duniyas influence would linger with me forever, and I'd find its thematic and stylistic echoes in my own stories". In the early 1970s, Chughtai wrote two novels, Ajeeb Aadmi (A Very Strange Man) and Jangli Kabootar (Wild