Irumbu Pattampoochigal

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Interesting, and could have been little bit short 🧲

Fast paced, good read. Audio on Storytel - excellent narration!

I went to the library a few days back. I was in the mood for reading a popular fiction book in Tamil. So I borrowed this one, 'Iron Butterflies' by Rajesh Kumar. Rajesh Kumar is one of the popular crime fiction writers in Tamil. In Tamil, crime fiction during the old days was mostly of the light, humorous kind. Then a writer called Tamilvanan emerged in the '50s, and he started writing a different kind of crime fiction which feels contemporary when we read it now. He also wrote noir fiction, where sometimes there were no good characters. Noir fiction was new in Tamil those days. Other crime fiction authors joined him later, like Sujatha, Rajesh Kumar, Rajendra Kumar, Pushpa Thangadurai, Pattukkottai Prabhakar, Subha, Kalaadhar. During the heyday of crime fiction in the '80s, even writers who wrote literary fiction and social fiction like Sivasankari, Indhumathi, Ambai, experimented with crime fiction. Everyone wanted to give it the try. So we can say that Tamilvanan was the founder of modern Tamil crime fiction. But Rajesh Kumar has been its biggest practitioner. Rajesh Kumar has been writing crime fiction in Tamil for nearly 50 years now. He used to be a teacher in school and he left his job to become a full-time writer. It was quite an unusual thing to do those days. It required a lot of courage. No one quit a government job like that. Rajesh Kumar started by writing novels for monthly magazines which were dedicated to novels, and by writing novels in serial form in weekly magazines. Then one of the publishers started a monthly magazine dedicated to just Rajesh Kumar novels. This was unusual those days and it was a huge risk taken by the publisher. Rajesh Kumar says in his memoir that he was not sure about it initially, because he was not confident of being able to write one novel every month. But he agreed to it, and as they say, the rest is history. Fans welcomed it and flocked to buy that magazine every month and it was a superhit. I don't think that particular magazine is there today, but Rajesh Kumar continues writing novels for monthly magazines and novels in serial form for weekly magazines. No one knows how many books he has written. A conservative estimate is that it must be around 1000+. 'Iron Butterflies' has two novels. The title novel, 'Iron Butterflies', and another novel called 'Closed Doors'. First about 'Iron Butterflies'. 'Iron Butterflies' at around 320 pages, is quite big when compared to a typical Rajesh Kumar novel. It is the longest novel of his that I've ever read. In this story, a young female journalist is trying to get an interview of the CEO of a pharmaceutical company. This man is young and is a high achiever but he refuses to give interviews. Finally she catches him during his morning run at the park. After some reluctance he agrees to be interviewed. He drives back to his home and she interviews him during the drive. When they reach his home, he invites her in and asks her to wait while he goes inside to get changed. While she is waiting, she sees something that she is not supposed to see, and she realizes that she is in great danger, and she tries to escape. The cat-and-mouse game starts and what happens after that forms the rest of the story. 'Iron Butterflies' is vintage Rajesh Kumar. As he wrote this story in serial form for a weekly magazine, at the end of every chapter there is a cliffhanger or a twist and we want to turn the page to find out what happens next. It must have been very exciting for the original readers of the story as they'd have had to wait a week, before finding out what happened. Putting in a cliffhanger at the end of every chapter must have been lots of hardwork, and sometimes we feel that the author has written himself into a corner and we wonder how he is going to wriggle out of it. But Rajesh Kumar is a master and everytime we feel that he has written himself into a corner or the story has reached a dead end, he brings the story out of it seamlessly and effortlessly and makes us yearn for more. It was like watching a master at work. It was an education in the art of crime fiction writing. The second story, 'Closed Doors', starts spectacularly. The cliffhanger at the end of the first chapter is dark but spectacular. In that chapter, there are just three characters who make an appearance, and things look nice and peaceful, and we wonder how the story is going to go, but towards the end of the chapter, things take an unexpected turn, and Rajesh Kumar punches us in the stomach and the story roars and takes off into the stratosphere! After that, in each chapter, we just cling to dear life! I enjoyed reading both the stories. They were gripping fast-paced thrillers and are a treat to crime fiction fans. Unfortunately, Rajesh Kumar's works haven't been translated much into English. I remember seeing one or two short stories of his or excerpts from his novels featured in 'The Blaft Anthology of Tamil Pulp Fiction'. But outside of that, I haven't seen much. It is sad. But I'm glad I discovered him when I was younger, and I'm glad he continues to entertain fans with his gripping crime thrillers. Have you read Rajesh Kumar's crime fiction? Have you read this book? Which of his books are your favourites?