The Blaft Anthology of Tamil Pulp Fiction Volume 2

Translated and Selected by
Edited by : Rakesh Khanna

Edition Details:
Format:Paperback
Page Count : 459
Publisher : Blaft Publications

The second volume of Blaft Anthology of Tamil Pulp fiction contains five long stories and a comic. Each story is from a different writer unlike the previous volume which contained multiple stories by authors like Rajesh Kumar and others. As,it is a anthology so i will tell about each story separately.

1) The palace of Kottaipuram – Indra Soundram Rajan 3.5/5

First Sentence :
The plane swooped down like a huge metal bird.

Viswanathan Rupasekaran Kottaipurathaan aka Visu is the youngest son of royal family of Kottaipuram clan. Visu is in love with Archana,who used to study in his college. But there is a secret that Visu has been hiding from Archana. The royal family of Kottaipuram clan is cursed. No male member of this family survives after his thirtieth year. Visu doesn’t believes on curses but when his elder brother Gajendran dies on his thirtieth birthday Visu starts believing in it. Archana meanwhile gathers some knowledge which leads her to believe that the curse is nothing but a man made conspiracy against the royals. Is it the conspiracy or the royal family is truly cursed? Will Visu survive the ordeal? And how he will fathom the mysteries in his family’s past?
For this you’ll have to read the story.

It was an entertaining story. The story was first published as a serialized novel. Each chapter in the story ends at a point which creates suspense and forces reader to continue reading the story. I liked the story very much.

2)  Highway 117 2/5
Artist : Jeyraj
Story: Pushpa Thangadorai

It is a illustrated story. When Karate Kavitha entered the train little did she know she is stepping into an adventure. Some gang is looting the temples and police are clueless about the thieves. Will karate Kavitha be able to solve the mystery and save the day? And the main question is how does she gets embroiled in the case in the first place? Reading this short comic book will answer your questions.

I have given two stars for it for a reason. I thought the story was okay. I don’t know why the story was called Highway 117 when it was the express 117 that was involved in the finale. The art work was okay too, nothing extraordinary.

3) Hold on a minute, I’m in the middle of a murder by Indumathi 3.5/5

First Sentence:
From the hospital’s expansive grounds, it was obvious that it catered to an extremely privileged clientele.

Shanthi has been admitted to J J Mental Hospital. She is a heiress and her mother has promised a hefty donation if Dr Jaykumar is able to cure her daughter. Now Dr Jaykumar is happy as he knows Shanthi is finally cured now. He has talked to her mother and is dreaming about the extra money that he’ll get. His day dreaming breaks when a beautiful lady calls his name. The lady is a stranger and she disappears into thin air when Jaykumar follows her.  He’s perplexed about the event. But he doesn’t knows the weirdness is just beginning. If he knew what he’ll go through in the coming days he would have killed himself. Who was the mysterious girl? What will happen? And the main question is, Why was Shanthi admitted to the hospital?

This story is full of gore and occult. People keep dying in the story and most of them are good people. It was an entertaining story. Although, sometimes it made me angry when innocent people were butchered but that means i was connected with the characters and i like that in  a book.

4)  The Bunglow by the River by M.K. Narayanan 3.5/5

First Sentence:
The storm raged, with heavy gales of wind.

It’s been twenty two years when Manivanan’s mother,Maragadham, took him and left her husband’s house. Her husband had fallen for the lovely sieren Mangalam. So when Manivanan gets call from his father ,Angappan’s friend Kaliyaperumal, he is more than surprised. He finds out that his father has left him a bungalow in his will. This was the only asset that Angappan could save and he wanted this to go to his son. Manivanan doesn’t want anything to do with this but his wife Kala, persuades him to take a look at the bungalow. So Manivanan along with his wife and his lawyer Kadiravan along with his fiance Padma decide to go to the Bugalow. When they reach there bizarre things start happening. Padma who they find out is the exact replica of Mangalam starts behaving weirdly. What is happening? How is Padma related to Mangalam? And are the things happening in the Bungalow natural or some supernatural thing is at work there? Well, you know what to do, to find out.

The story was originally presented as a radio show. And after it was a huge success then it was printed as a story. Prior to reading this story, I didn’t knew that there were so many Tamil speaking people in Singapore. The story is based in Singapore and Malaysia. The story is a ghost story. It was an entertaining read. Although i think the ending was not that good. I think an alternate ending should have been there. It would have increased the quality of the story and i would have given the story a 4.5 rating. Apart from this weak ending  i really enjoyed reading the story..

5) Hello,Good Dead Morning – Rajesh Kumar 3/5

First Sentence :
The shrill ring of telephone came as Vivek was huddled in his warm, thick woolen blanket, trying to.beat the cold of the early dawn.

Vivek is dreaming about his love Rubella when his dream is broken by the ringing of phone. It’s Gokulnath on the other side and he informs Vivek that a man is found hanging in the park. The man was found hanging in a small room situated in the water tank of the park. Vivek visits the place and looking the corpse knows that it’s murder and not suicide. Who is the man? Did he commit suicide or was he murdered? These questions keep ringing in Vivek’s head. They baffled me too. But for me the mystery is now clear. What about you?

It was an entertaining story. I loved it. I liked the story was written.

6) Sacrilege to love by Resakee 3/5
First Sentence:
“Amma,” Anita called out as she entered the living room.


Anita is in her final year of college. After her father’s death, her mother has raised her brother, Bhaskar and her. Bhaskar is her older brother and is very protective about her. When he finds out that his driver, Sevlam, has proposed Anita, he goes and thrashes him. Anita had already refused to Sevlam’s proposal and when she finds about Bhaskar’s deed she becomes furious. Meanwhile, Anita falls in love with a guy. Bhaskar know about it and tries to break their relation. He has promised Anita that he’ll never interfere in her life so he devices schemes to put the guy in jail. Will Bhaskar succeed? What will happen to the relationship?

It was an okay story. I liked it but i didn’t find it as entertaining as the rest.

It was an entertaining collection of long stories. I really loved the collection and hope that they soon come out with the third volume. Have you read the book? If not you can get it from the following links:

Amazon
If you have read the book, you can write your views in the comment box.