House of horrors
It is always that extra bit more interesting when a book critic turns author.
It is always that extra bit more interesting when a book critic turns author. A subtle set of parameters immediately come into play: Will the finer nuances pointed out in the reviews be followed in his/her own work Will the author attain the degree of perfection he/she always strained to find in the books reviewed Poet, journalist, advertising professional and well-known reviewer of books, Karishma Attari, in her debut novel, I See You, glides regally over such trivia, the wind firmly in her sails. A very self-assured work of writing, the novel starts by going straight for the jugular without any kind of lengthy introduction, prologue or preamble.
Seventeen year old Alia Khanna returning home to Mumbai after years of studying at Woodstock is disgruntled to find that her mother has not come to receive her at the airport. Instead there’s Mary, the old trusted family maid and nanny who is waiting to chaperone her home, which is a sprawling villa by the sea with fortress-like walls to keep out fans and media persons who are perennially trying to catch a glimpse of her famous step-father, actor Rahul Khanna. Alia returns home to an old, familiar feeling of uneasiness, the pristine white walls of her room evoke haunting memories, the house whispers dark secrets and the stage is set for the carnival of horrors that is to follow.
The meeting with her mother after years of no communication is no less strained with the shadows of dusk and reflections in the window panes playing strange tricks. If the mother-daughter relationship is far from being a normal, loving one, Alia’s equation with her stepfather is positively glacial with the actor making his dislike for her very clear. Odd things are afoot in the brooding sea-side villa of the Khannas — post-it notes appear and disappear inexplicably, some of them often carrying strange messages written by an unknown hand; a gold chain begins to move on its own, nearly sawing into Alia’s mother’s neck, even as Alia finds herself attracted and repelled in equal measure by a maze in the garden that appears to hold at its centre the answers to many mysteries.
Alia’s mother’s stylist fixes a designer wardrobe for her, a swanky car is provided for daily commute and Alia enrolls as a student of Literature at St. Xavier’s College. And thus begins a new chapter in Alia’s life, one that is filled with campus capers, peer group dynamics and the usual hormone-rich emotions that characterise adolescence. Romantic encounters abound, but Alia’s first brush with serious heartache is when the tall, dark and handsome Sid comes along sweeping her off her feet.
Attari constructs her novel with care, satiating the reader’s curiosity only in bite-sized pieces and keeping a tight leash on the suspense quotient. The urgency to know all answers to the horrific happenings around Alia is so great that readers might be sorely tempted to cheat and check out the end; all of which goes to show what a splendid spin the author has given to a novel belonging to the horror genre.
Attari’s writing style is sturdy, focused and no-nonsense and does not digress into unnecessary convolutions of technique and yet, when she writes about the city of Mumbai, the passages stand out with their colourful imagery and angst-ridden charm. The stark contrast between incessant rains on some days and the city baking in stifling heat on others, the busy areas around the Metro cinema and teeming crowds of humanity are brought out with vibrancy. Frequent mention of Facebook and LinkedIn, and popular hangouts like the Sundance café give the text a warm familiarity. St. Xavier’s College with its airy quadrangles, gracious Indo-Gothic architecture and bustling canteen life is etched beautifully and many a Mumbaiker will make an instant connect with it. The students’ discussions about the classic works of literature are particularly youthful and sparkling.
Pendulum-like, the novel oscillates rhythmically between the college and haunted-villa settings. Alia’s friends in college — the beauteous besties Maya and Ronjita, the flirtatious Chris, the nurturing Aliefya and the spacey college counselor, Father Thomas — are a tad stereotypical but contribute to the lively atmosphere of the campus chapters. When evil rears its head in the subsequent pages, it is all the more disconcerting for the contrast. Attari applies a no-holds-barred approach while tackling the goosebump raising parts. As Alia attempts to crack the haunting that afflicts her dysfunctional family and confront her twisted past, there are pagan rituals described with ghoulish relish. Attari unleashes witchcraft, human sacrifices, blood, gore, a crow that spins out of a raging fire and dives right back into it, a broken doll with bizarre properties and a mighty clash between the good and dark forces. Pyrotechnics abound in plenty, as the protagonist in a wild and misguided burst of anger tries to burn down the family home, the maze refuses to burn down and tongues of fire choose to shape their own trails. Particularly scary is the depiction of the ghost Bobby who is past all redemption and has morphed into a supernatural contract killer for his dark lord. The plot, fairly easy to follow all through, turns slightly complicated in the penultimate chapters with the ritualistic bartering and a sadhu baba’s (a supernatural midwife of sorts) tantric-like antics boggling the mind a wee bit. The novel ends on a note of promise with a teaser of the sequel as Alia seems poised to slay many more demons.
The racy pace of the novel coupled with full-blooded horror is sure to appeal to young adults. There are moments of déjà vu as one relives movies/novels like Paranormal Activity, The Omen and, closer home, an immensely forgettable Ram Gopal Varma movie, Phoonk. But it is to the author’s credit that she gathers all the diverse ingredients of horror, gives them a mighty shake and stir, and serves them as a chilling cohesive whole. Alia as the protagonist gains the reader’s empathy by being scared and spunky at the same time and one wishes her good luck in her future encounters with the “dark force”. A riveting and deliciously scary novel, I See You is perfect reading material for the long winter nights. Kankana Basu is a Mumbai-based writer. Her published works of fiction include a collection of short stories, Vinegar Sunday, and a novel, Cappuccino Dusk.