India, Aug. 2 -- Premchand arrived in Bombay on May 31, 1934. He was 54 years old, a father of three, the country's most famous living Hindi writer - and a man in dire financial difficulties. The losses were piling up at the Saraswati Press he'd been running since 1923; his two weekly publications, Hans and Jagran, were bleeding money. On the eve of his departure to Bombay, he wrote to a friend, "A drowning man was extended a hand, and has grasped at it." The helping hand was the offer of a one-year contract by a film company, Ajanta Cinetone. It was a somewhat persistent offer; they sent him two telegrams! They wanted him to write stories on which they would base films. He would be paid eight thousand rupees....