NEW DELHI: Delhi-based publishing marketing consultant Krishnakumar Nair’s first introduction to Japanese crime fiction occurred some three years in the past with Keigo Higashino’s blockbuster e-book ‘The Devotion of Suspect X’ (TDSX). Bollywood followers now comprehend it because the e-book that director Sujoy Ghosh’s ‘Jaane Jaan’ relies on. Jeethu Joseph’s 2013 Malayalam movie ‘Drishyam’— which itself led to a Hindi remake starring Ajay Devgn in 2015 — can be believed to be impressed by TDSX, although the director has denied it.
Soon after the discharge of the 2012 hit ‘Kahaani’, Sujoy Ghosh was given a replica of the taut nail-biter TDSX.“But contrary to what everyone told me, I only read a love story in this Higashino novel. A doomed love story,” says Ghosh, who had tried an analogous tragic-romantic dynamic in Kahaani too — between Vidya Balan and Rana (the inspector-sidekick serving to Vidya). Rana knew issues wouldn’t work out between him and Vidya as a result of she was married and carrying another person’s youngster. Similarly, in ‘Jaane Jaan’ the mysterious math instructor, performed by Jaideep Ahlawat, is aware of his secret love for single mom Maya D’Souza (Kareena Kapoor Khan) is a dead-end. “Jaideep’s devotion to Maya is love at its purest form. From the little that I have read in Japanese literature, including their manga, what strikes me most is how the characters are so noble and big — in their thoughts, acceptance of things, and their sense of honour. It’s like you aspire to be a good human being like that, at least I do,” says Ghosh, including that TDSX’s feelings of affection and loyalty are timeless. Higashino’s ‘Journey under the Midnight Sun’ is one other thriller novel Ghosh sees potential in. “But it’s a little bizarre, disturbing and dark, so it may not be a good idea to adapt.”

Long earlier than filmmakers found the style, Indian readers have been hooked to Japanese noir. Nair loves the locked-room or ‘Shin Honkaku’ mysteries, which have been written within the Eighties however have discovered a brand new following attributable to a raft of latest translations. “Unlike Nordic noir where the emphasis is on bleak and dark landscapes, Japanese crime noir is usually about minute details. It’s a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. Everyone is so used to things running to the precise second in Japan that any anomaly could become the basis of the plot or the unravelling of a perfectly prepared alibi,” says Nair.
Lawyer and science fiction writer Gautam Bhatia says Japanese novels are rather more than whodunnits. “What really grips you in Japanese mystery books is the why and how of things, more than who did it. In fact, readers often know who the murderer is early in the plot or can guess it,” says Gautam Bhatia, who found TDSX simply earlier than a go to to Japan final November. “Forget western crime fiction, even in Japanese crime fiction, absolutely nothing comes close to it,” says Bhatia. He now has an in depth assortment of Higashino titles, other than novels by Seishi Yokomizo whose detective Kosuke Kindaichi’s first case was a locked-room thriller referred to as ‘The Honjin Murders’. “Sleuths like Higashino’s detective Galileo or Yokomizo’s Kindaichi are very nondescript. They are not personality-driven like Sherlock Holmes or Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford and Miss Marple. They are way more generic,” says Bhatia, who finishes these books in a single sitting. His social media posts on Japanese thriller novels have impressed many, together with regulation professors in different nations, to provide it a go. Bhatia himself distributes copies amongst buddies. “It’s just really good fiction. They are also easily available in India and for very cheap. And the lack of any cultural overlap with India is no reason for not enjoying it. For instance, in Japan you measure a room dimension by seeing how many tatami mats can fit into it. In their crime novels, when describing a murder scene, there might be mention of a room 16-tatami mats big. You would not know what it means until you visit the country. But it’s like a one-line mention. You read it and move on.”

When Arunima Mazumdar, a author and communications skilled in Delhi, learn her first Haruki Murakami in 2010, she fell right into a Japanese literature rabbit gap. In December final 12 months, she began Dokusha (which suggests a reader in Japanese) Book Club. Currently, Dokusha Book Club has 500-plus registered members from throughout the nation and over 3K followers on Instagram. She says a number of the most enthusiastic posts are about Japanese crime fiction. “I feel Japanese crime fiction is more about the narrative style than the actual nature of the crime. Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s short story ‘Rashomon’, for example, is celebrated till date not for its story but for its vivid imagery and narration,” says Mazumdar.
For 21-year-old Jagruti Sharma, one of many members of the e-book membership, crime novels are a pleasant escape from the rigours of pursuing a medical diploma in Manipal. “Higashino, one of my favourites, was an engineer before he turned to writing. This strikes a chord because I too wanted to do something in literature but couldn’t,” says Sharma. Other thriller writers she likes embody Yokomizo, Soji Shimada, Masako Togawa and Natsuo Kirino.
Amit Bhowmik, a Mumbai-based internet marketing consultant, ardent bibliophile and a uncommon books collector, recommends the bleaker Ry Murakami. His novels — ‘In The Miso Soup’, ‘Audition’, ‘Piercing’ and ‘Coin Locker Babies’— discover the sinister aspect of city Japan with themes like alienation, drug use, and excessive violence. “His books are absolute hardcore crime fiction. Think Yakuza (Japanese mafia). Very much like the Mumbai underworld. Their dark, surrealist imagination — like aliens walking around conducting autopsies in the human world — will blow your mind,” says Bhowmik. He additionally suggests feminine crime writers just like the 70-plus Natsuo Kirino whose novels ‘Grotesque’, ‘Out’ and ‘Real’ function a hard-boiled feminine personal eye, who dumps companions at will. In an interview to The New York Times, she says she received loads of indignant letters from males. “They couldn’t take it that a woman can have the same sexual appetite as men.”
Bhowmick says apart from ‘Japan’s crime fiction queen’ there are various extra aspects to discover. “To my mind, the best fiction is now coming out of Japan and publishers are keener than ever to dig out more titles from this amazing country. In my top ten crime fiction list, at least three would be Japanese,” he says.