Oct 10, 2015 03:26 PM
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Pulp Fiction Ever since my youth, I used to see local language publications on roadside stalls, in railway station bookshops and in the hands of friends. I was a bit envious as, for some reason, my parents never made us learn any language but English.
Blaft to the Rescue It was only some years back that I discovered Blaft publications. My first purchase was Tamil Pulp Fiction but imagine my delight when I found this Hindi language novel in an English translation!
Cover Art The cover illustration and cover design by Shelle Studio and Ramesh Ram are spectacular, capturing all the juiciness that used to lure my eye when I was a youngster and beheld Indian regional language pulp fiction by the wayside or being devoured by my besties.
Pathak’s Gripping Style The 8th novel of the Vimal series, this one is about the robbery of a payroll van in Agra. Apparently, it is special, as, in this story, the hero takes part in a crime for his own benefit. Previously, it seems, he used to be forced into such things by other criminals.
Dwarkanath, an aging gambler from Agra, informs Vimal about a great plastic surgeon, Dr. Earl Slater, who only operates on Indian criminals for an exorbitant fee. Vimal (aka Sardar Surender Singh Sohal) is wanted by the police. If he can get plastic surgery he might escape the long arm of the law.
Thus, he is sucked into Dwarkanath's evil scheme of destroying an armoured van carrying cash with no mercy for the the driver and security guard. Meanwhile, the officer in charge of the Ratnakar Steel Mill is being blackmailed due to his weakness for gambling. Things go terribly wrong… Buy the book to find out if Vimal can wiggle out of the mess!
Authenticity I was really engrossed in this book as the author creates very real descriptions. I can’t forget the scenes in a train or in a shady hotel room!
As Daylight Robbery’s translator, Sudarshan Purohit, puts it in a Tehelka article
Vimal is a man on the run. If he ends up staying at Agra’s Clarks Shiraz you can bet there’s such a hotel. When he’s in Amritsar he’ll meet the Punjabi underworld. Other novelists don’t bother locating the stories so carefully.
A Collector’s Item There are more illustrations within the book which are so very typical. They are classics of the genre. This is a precious book for me.
Pulp fiction is undervalued and has a bad reputation just because of the English words. The English phrase puts the phenomenon into a bad light. Yet, so many great writers were published in cheap magazines at all times in history.
Blaft is doing a commendable job to make Indians able to read fiction in each other’s regional language by translating them into English.
