New Delhi: Hindi litterateur Mannu Bhandari, who penned wildly popular short stories and novels without sacrificing literary merit and who constructed a new and aware modern woman in her works, passed away in a Gurgaon hospital on Monday. She was 90.

“She had suffered a series of strokes over the last few years. She was frail but never bedridden. This time she was hospitalized for an infection which turned fatal” her daughter Rachana Yadav, a kathak dancer, told TOI.

Film director Basu Chatterjee, with whom she shared a fond association, transformed Bhandari’s long short story, Yehi Sach Hai, into a feature, Rajnigandha (1974). The film was both a critical and a commercial success. Basu da’s Jeena Yahan (1979) was also based on her work, Ekhane Aakash Neyee. Bhandari also wrote the dialogues for Swami (1977), another box-office winner.

Her novel, Aap Ka Bunty was made as Samay Ki Dhara (1986), which veered away from the original story and ran into legal trouble. Mahabhoj, a hard-hitting political novel, was numerously staged as a play.

Born in Bhanpur, Madhya Pradesh, Bhandari earned her masters at Banaras Hindu University. She also taught at Delhi University and was married to eminent writer-editor Rajendra Yadav who passed away in 2013. Both were pillars of the Nayee Kahani (New Story) movement.

Writer Mridula Garg said along with Krishna Sobti and Usha Priyamvada, Bhandari was regarded as the three best Hindi women writers of the 1960s and 70s. “She wrote with spontaneity and empathy for her characters. Her style was easy going and direct. People identified with her characters,” Garg said.