Sex, violence and lots of blood form the major part of volume two of Blaft's Anthology of Tamil Pulp Fiction

If part one had you hooked with themes of science fiction, humour, romance and even social dramas running through it, volume two promises fantastic themes, thrilling plots with bits of titillation thrown in here and there. There is high drama, there is the ghoulish, plenty of blood with a good measure of the erotic and the supernatural thrown into this spicy broth.

Apart from four novellas that deal with all things gory, there is a slightly satirical and dark comedy-like take in the story called Sacrilege to Love by Resakee where a brother is hell bent on preventing his sister from falling in love against his wishes.

Some of the action this time also shifts to foreign shores namely Malaysia where action happens full on Tamil style but in foreign shores.

This is because volume two also includes stories by Tamil writers settled in Singapore who have taken homegrown characters all the way to South East Asia. So, instead of tucking into hot dosais and vadais, villains are seen lapping up Mi Goreng (a Malaysian fried noodle dish) before going in for the kill.

While the Hidden Hoard in the Cryptic Chamber has all the makings of a high-paced thriller complete with creatures with superhuman strength who will remind you of characters from Arthur Conan Doyle and HG Wells novels, Hello Good Dead Morning is a whodunit with girls who can't seem to control their raging desires after watching a blue film and have to pay the price with murder.
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The flavours of the peppery originals have been kept intact while translating and the ludicrousness of the situations somehow smoothly fit into the narrative.

This anthology also introduces a graphic novel called Highway 117 with the character Karate Kavitha who thinks nothing of kicking around enemies even with her modesty at stake.
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The style of illustrations is very reminiscent of Bahadur from Indrajal Comics. Every story seems to have a woman protagonist who is progressive for her time and is instrumental in solving of the mystery or crime.

However, some of the stories like Palace of Kottaipuram and The Bungalow By The River tend to stretch on a bit with too much of plot building. The first is based on a family curse that troubles a royal family and the second borders on themes of black magic and the supernatural.

But the fun part of this collection is of course the pages dedicated to the kitchy book jackets from Tamil originals, the personal notes by authors to their readers, the translation of the slap sticky advertisements and even tongue-in-cheek responses of authors to reader's queries.

The Blaft Anthology of Tamil Pulp Fiction Volume II
Translated by Pritham K Chakravarthy
Edited by Rakesh Khanna
Price Rs 495

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