The Devourers
Author : Indra Das
Publisher : Penguin, Rs499
Indra Das’s The Devourers infuses new energy into the Indian literary fantasy genre with a tale spanning centuries featuring werewolves, shape shifters, a wandering beauty and a history professor. It’s got enough for an appetising meal, and, to a great extent, even serves one. So what if it’s slightly cold, writes GAUTAM CHINTAMANI
To use an oft-repeated parlance of our times, Indra Das’s The Devourers will have you at hello and why not. A tale that starts in present day Kolkata and then springs back to 17th century Agra, The Devourers spans across centuries and features a werewolf telling a history professor the story of a shape-shifter’s ill-fated romance with a young wandering woman in the shadow of the Taj Mahal’s construction and it is just the stuff good yarns are made of. Yet, the conversation following the ‘had me at hello’ greeting is a slight let-down in spite of the fascinating idea, a passionately perched saga that sweeps you off more often than you’d expect it to and an unmistakable flourish when it comes to narrative.
The debut novel of Indrapramit or Indra Das is a great shot in the arm for the Indian literary fantasy genre. Even though the story might appear to have its thematic roots in a genre more popular in the West, Das nonetheless manages to blend in the local flavour well enough to make the story organic. Das generously uses popular history surrounding the grandeur of the Mughals, be it the opulence of ‘Chandni Chauk’ or the Qila-Mubarak (The Blessed or Red Fort), the making of Taj Mahal just off Mumtazabad or the by-lanes of Akbarabad and Shahjahanabad and even ancient Greek mythology to proffer a backdrop for his imagination. His myriad characters ranging from a pack of three shape-shifters — Kveldulf, Makedon and Gèvaudan- travelling from Europe to the heart of the Mughal empire, Cyrah — a young wanderer in a dusty caravanserai and Alok — a history professor in present day Kolkata who is transcribing a series of scrolls containing the story of Cyrah and the shape-shifters — all grapple with their own demons while coming to terms in varying degrees with what being human means.
literary fantasy, or speculative fiction as it’s also called at times, in India is still largely rooted in the mythological tales. Besides the great epics such as Mahabharata or Ramayana or the sub-stories within them, there has also been the Shiva trilogy by Amish Tripathi and such that has been reinterpreted and reimagined the epics in the name of literary fantasy. The creator of The Twilight Zone, Rod Serling, once said that fantasy is ‘the impossible made probable’ and this could explain the popularity of mythology inspired speculative fiction. One thing that the speculative fiction genre might have to overcome, at least in an Indian context, is to allow suspension of disbelief as far as the reader or more correctly newer readers and that is an uphill task. It’s perhaps therefore not easy for this genre to overcome the entrenched familiarity with mythological tales. The strong mythological lineage in our traditional story telling is perhaps too ingrained to totally breakaway from but irrespective of the popularity of the Shiva trilogy and others, this burden seems to be already shifting. like Samit Basu’s The Simoqin Prophecies, which also had an East-West mélange and still managed to create something unique for Indian literature, The Devourers also localises the story of werewolves to not appear improbable. A veneer of believability that doesn’t come at the cost of diluting the fantasy elements helps the juxtaposition the book’s improbable along with the impossible. Such as the introduction of the East India Company in its early days in the Mughal Empire where it’s all set to march towards Masulipatnam, a trading post on the Coromandel Coast.
Das divides his time between India and Canada and he is also a recipient of the Octavia E Butler Scholarship that saw him attend the Clarion West Writers Workshop under the tutelage of George RR Martin. Among other things, Das is also an artist and perhaps this could explain the crispness that The Devourers hits you with at certain places, when it’s not giving into, at places, seemingly forced immingling of concepts from across cultures. Even with inspiration generously drawn from themes that aren’t in short supply such as werewolves, The Devourers is wildly original and enormously riveting. What makes it intriguing even for those who would give literary fantasy a miss is the fact that beyond the razzmatazz it is a poignant tale about the love of the people whom love itself forgot. While reading The Devourers one can’t help but wonder would it have been a more fulfilling experience had Das written it as a graphic novel because even though in its present format it has everything needed for an appetising meal, and though to a great extent it even serves one, the dish somehow ends up remaining slightly cold.
The reviewer is the author of the bet-selling Dark Star: The loneliness of Rajesh Khanna (HarperCollins, 2014) | Tweet Gautam- @gchintamani
