Skip to main content

Book Review: The Hawa Mahal Murders by N. J. Kulkarni

How will you treat a novel if it reminds you of Agatha Christie's bestseller thrillers and mysteries? Simply, it is a treat! I have been reading suspense thrillers and murder and crime mystery novels since a long time that I can’t even put it vaguely. But still it takes me time to identify and decide whether I want to read the same author again or not. Well, not every time. Of course with Collin Dexter – I knew, midway, I won’t be coming again for him. If a thriller or mystery is slow-paced awfully with a lot of characters, well it’s a time-testing experience for me. I abhor that type.


Anyway, lately I got engaged with a new thriller written by an Indian author. The book was launched by Javed Akhtar at Pune International Book Fair. I think that was enough to pick it up. I read it in three sittings, the last one was a bit stretched. What I got? Sheer joy and unforgettable experience. The novel was ‘The Hawa Mahal Murders’ by N. J. Kulkarni.

Coming to the story, the preface itself looked quite promising where a kid dreamt to build a Hawa Mahal like the one he saw in Jaipur while on a tour with his mediocre parents. Well that kid goes on to become a famous jeweler by the name of Rajat Mehta and builds a lavish Hawa Mahal, but in Bombay (now Mumbai). The day Smita and her husband Karan Joshi move into the Hawa Mahal building, Ria Khan, mother of a famous Bollywood actor, is murdered. And it marks the beginning of the actual novel. Let me tell you that Hawa Mahal is a famous, kind of grand building in one of the posh areas of Mumbai, where actors from Bollywood to the current CM’s daughter-in-law live. However, Karan Joshi is just another employee in an IT firm – a kind of misfit there. There itself the mystery starts as how can a mediocre working professional afford the lavish Hawa Mahal rent. What’s the internal connection? Like this, there are many more ugly and pleasant facts there awaiting discovery. And for Smita a bad marriage experience is on the verge of realization after this murder. How will she cope up in Hawa Mahal? It is another story to know her destiny.

Well, to your concern, as usual, the watchman is framed and picked up by the police and the case can be closed anytime. The initial thought is that the murder and the blackmailer is the same person. And it has to be that watchman. However, there is a twist in the form of ACP Jai Rege; he is handling the case. But his boss, Chivate, at any cost want this case to be closed as soon as possible. Why? It has its own reasons?

The author has brilliantly brought out the intricacies found in the police department, where juniors either behave like a spy or busy planning backstabbing. Jai is caught in the web trouble of as on whom to fall back on, and who to trust. His juniors Bhat and Billu are no better than a case gone astray. Well, they have more share in the story than just being into the pipeline of auxiliary characters.

The novel stretches up to around 300 pages, with short and crisp chapters with new and exciting turbulence that chugs the story ahead rivetingly. The list of characters is long, but positively it builds a larger web of suspects. The session of investigation and interrogations and forensic drama all unfolds something bigger and hidden from everyone but at the same time things look foggy. One more murder takes place, and from there the story sees no dip in its tides of excitement. I got tired of interpreting – who is who? I stopped supporting and abhorring the characters, rather got with the flow. With so much lineage, sin history, and sweeps (ugly and miserable and good), this novel pushed me into an abyss of sheer delight and bemusement.

With Mumbai as a backdrop, shocking family history one after another, the role of elite people in affecting the society, the oppression of poor ones, I think with all these elements spiced up in one tapestry, the author has nailed it perfectly. At least this year, which is dwindling fast, I think there is no one like N.J. Kulkarni. The novel is way too impressive and good for all sorts of readers, and for hardcore thriller and crime fiction fans, a palette of mirth and entertainment.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Poem Summary: Where The Mind Is Without Fear by Rabindranath Tagore

Poem by Rabindranath Tagore: Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high Where knowledge is free Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls Where words come out from the depth of truth Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit Where the mind is led forward by thee Into ever-widening thought and action Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. Short Summary: This poem is written by Rabindranath Tagore during pre-independence days, when India was a colony of the British. The underlying theme of the poem is absolute freedom; the poet wants the citizens of his country to be living in a free state. According to the poem, we see that the poet is expressing his views there should be a country, like where people live without any sort of fear and with pure dignity…they should
67 comments
Read more

Book Review: The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond

Among all Ruskin Bond books, The Blue Umbrella has, so far, gathered immense applaud from readers and critics alike.  This is a short novel, but the kind of moral lessons it teaches to us are simply overwhelming. This is a story of Binya, a poor little girl living with her mother and an elder brother, Bijju, in a small hilly village of Garhwal. One day while herding her two cows back home, she stumbles upon some city people enjoying the picnic in the valley. She is enthralled to see them well-groomed and rich. She craves to be one like them and among many other things of their, a blue frilly umbrella catches her attention. She begins craving for it. On the other hand, the city people get attracted by her innocent beauty and the pendant in her neck. The pendant consists of leopard’s claw – which is considered a mascot widely in the hills. Binya trades her pendant off with the blue umbrella. The blue umbrella is so much beautiful that soon it becomes a topic of conversation fo
63 comments
Read more

Poem Summary: Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Ozymandias is a short poem of fourteen lines written by Percy Bysshe Shelley. The concurrent theme of the poem is that nothing remains intact and same forever in this world. Even the brightest of metal, one day decays with passage of time. The throne name of Egyptian King Ramesses is Ozymandias. It was his dearest desire to preserve himself forever by building a huge statue that he thought would never tumble down. Stanza 1: I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; Summary: The poet narrates the poem through the eyes of a traveler who seems to have come back from a remote and far-away land, referring to Egypt. The traveler r
23 comments
Read more