Genius of Ghalib, equally at home in solving murder mystery

‘Murder at the Mushaira’, an exciting work of historical/crime fiction, raises readers’ hopes

AM | February 22, 2021


#Raza Mir   #fiction   #history   #Delhi   #Urdu   #Ghalib   #Lierature  


Murder at the Mushaira
By Raza Mir
Aleph / 344 pages / Rs 799

While Indian-English writing has achieved great heights in literary fiction, that achievement is yet to be matched in genres ranging humour to crime. This is curious, because regional literatures have produced great masterpieces in various genres, comparable to the best of world literature. Especially in the crime/mystery/noir segment, curiously, many masters from abroad have chosen an Indian backdrop for their memorable and popular works, but little has come up from here. There have been numerous serious attempts in the last couple of decades, but they each remain singular, exceptional. It is only now that something like a movement is building up, with several talented writers taking up crime fiction from India. Among them is Raza Mir whose ‘Murder at the Mushaira’ is bound to raise readers’ hopes for the future of both crime fiction and historical fiction in Indian English.

Its premise – a murder at a soiree in Delhi during the upheavals of 1857 and Urdu poet Ghalib as detective – promises a feast for fans of historical fiction too, both in India and abroad. Mir has an anthology and an introduction to Urdu poetry and a Ghalib tribute to his credit, and that background comes handy in recreating the charm of the old world, of the bylanes of Shahjahanabad, of that unique period of history. Historical detailing, happily, does not bog down the narrative, but only enhances it. In terms of style, prose matches the ambience of poetry circles of old Delhi. One would wonder a translation in Hindi-Urdu, allowing the great poet to make repartees in his own tongue, would be even better.

As India prepares for the first battle of independence, revolutionaries are networking against the exploitative East India Company. As conspiracies are hatched in secret, on the surface social life goes on. Poetry lovers cannot give up on their soirees in the magnificent havelis, with the best of food and drinks on the side. One of them, however, ends in a murder – and the British officials smell foul. The lovingly named investigating officer, Kirorimal Chainsukh, is exasperated, and seeks help from – who else but –great poet Mirza Ghalib, who historically speaking is known to have a bent for amateur sleuthing. He will need all his extraordinary intelligence, his insider knowledge of the ways of high society and introductory lessons in the new science of forensics.

The genius of Ghalib, needless to say, is equally at home in crime detection, and the resolution is thoroughly satisfying. A rare treat for all fiction lovers.
 

Comments

 

Other News

Boost to offshore wind energy projects

In a major decision, the Government has decided to grant waiver of ISTS charges to Off-Shore Wind Projects and extend the waiver to Green Hydrogen/Green Ammonia. This decision has been taken to facilitate wider execution of offshore wind energy initiatives, to promote the expansion of Green Hydrogen / Gree

Duty of stakeholders to provide cost effective, alternate energy fuels: Gadkari

Urging use of alternative and cost effective fuels to reduce pollution caused by vehicles, union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said finding cost-effective fuels is the need of the hour and underlined that use of fuels like bio-CNG and green hydrogen help in protecting the e

Record production of rice, wheat, and sugarcane estimated

The foodgrain production of 3305.34 lakh tonnes is estimated in the current agricultural year 2022-23 – higher by 149.18 LMT as compared to the previous year, according to the Third Advance Estimates of production of major crops released by the ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare.

India`s ‘AIRAWAT’ ranks 75th in top 500 Supercomputing List

The AI Supercomputer ‘AIRAWAT’, installed at C-DAC, Pune, has been ranked 75th in the world. It was declared so in the 61st edition of Top 500 Global Supercomputing List on Tuesday at the International Supercomputing Conference (ISC 2023) in Germany. It puts India on top of AI S

Ocean Dialogue a great opportunity for G20 members

The ongoing third Environment and Climate Sustainability Working Group G20 meeting (May 21-23) has focused on three aspects: land degradation and reclamation of mining areas, Blue Economy and sustainable ocean management and resource sufficiency and circular economy. Leena Nandan, secretary,

Semi hi-speed trains, buses could be primary alternative to cars

We are not paying sufficient attention to the rapidly growing oil imports (from pre-Covid-19 to post-Covid, in 2022). They surged from 102 million tons (MT) in 2019-20 to 168 MT in 2022-23, an increase of 68%.   India is the largest importer of oil in the world, and, at current rate, we

Visionary Talk: Amitabh Gupta, Pune Police Commissioner with Kailashnath Adhikari, MD, Governance Now


Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter