Kalkatta, a world within Kolkata

Kolkata once Calcutta has produced many writers poets and filmmakers So many that often the city is imagined to belong to the intellectual middle class embedded in a world of art Kunal Basus new novel Kalkatta shatters that comfortable reverie by taking you to a place inhabited by vultures hovering around goat blood waiting for meat Around them live people desperately wanting to belong to that imagined Kolkata and ultimately become the real Kalkattawallah as Basu puts it and fall prey to vultures of aspiration For this Basu takes us to Zakaria StreetKalkatta throws light on the influence of the Communist party on the city PicAFPMy lead character Jamshed Alam Jami was brought to Kolkata at an early age from Dhaka by his parents Quite naturally they chose a part of the city mdash Zakaria Street mdash where they could find shelter among a population of NonBengalis gathered from far and wide where their illegal presence would go unnoticed and unchallenged he explainsAnd this part of the city doesnt resemble Kolkata at all Perhaps a Baghdad or a Cairo smelling of attar and slaughtered animals Under a sky dotted with colourful kites and swooping vultures one can hear the frequent call of Azan and temple bells reveals Basu To write about this world was of considerable challenge to Basu who admits Zakaria Street was like an alien planet to me But Jaigovind Indoria a social worker who had made his home there offered to share his friends and stories with meKalkatta Kunal Basu Picador India Rs 599 The informantAnd thus began Basus journey of exploring the fascinating lives He interacted with an excontract killer a shopkeeper who had lived through the 1946 riots and an imam with whom he had a lively chat about Salman Rushdie With Jaigovindji as accomplice I invaded homes drank tea thumbed through family albums climbed narrow stairs to the roofs for a sneak into the nearby brothels I wonder what Jaigovindji will make of my novel but I can see him clearly perched on a bench in Zakaria Street and telling his friends about me mdash a writer who had left Kolkata to come to Kalkatta he saysPoliticsKalkatta is set in the contemporary city tracing the influence of the Left on the lives of the inhabitants It all changes post the historic change of guard in the government This Basu points out is because Kolkata is inseparable from politics The fall of the Left wasnt simply a regime change but a radical shift in the power balance in every locality Those who were once imperious were reduced to nonentities Some of their supporters had to renegotiate loyalties in order to preserve life and livelihood I wanted Kalkatta to reveal this twilight zone between the public and the personal explains BasuKunal BasuThe voice of JamiThe narrator of Kalkatta is twice refugee Jamshed mdash a Bihari Muslim whose grandparents fled to Bangladesh and his parents came back to Kolkata mdash whose voice remains consistent and strikingly genuine Basu compares the process of achieving that to method acting I told myself that I had to become Jami to be able to see Kolkata as he would see itWriting this novel was a bit like method acting mdash becoming the character before playing himher on stage or screen It meant spending time in the company of young men like him going to see football matches with them hanging out at street corners going to shady bars and a whole lot more he elaborates These corners terraces precariously dilapidated balconies and kiteinterrupted skies emerge as you turn the pages of Kalkatta We wonder if Kalkatta too could become a movie like Japanese Wife Basu however denies that he had a film in mind while writingI think visually In order to write a story I must see it unfold before my eyes Imagery is my dominant methodology and I operate with a directors eye for detail But I dont write directly for cinema If someone were to find this filmable I would obviously be excited he signs off