Book Review: Murder at the Mushaira

Ghalib goes detecting

 When presented with 'What if?', the 'scenario' conjures up numerous possibilities making it an interesting proposition to delve in. What if Mirza Ghalib was a detective? Isn't this enough to hook a reader? We bet so.

Thus it is with great interest that we began reading Murder at the Mushaira, and we were not disappointed. Raza Mir, the author, toyed with the possibility of envisioning Ghalib as a detective for nearly 15 years. What we get in Murder at the Mushaira is not a racy whodunit, but more than a peek into the life and times of Ghalib, the Mughal court, the nobility and the sepoys who tried to overthrow the East India Company.

The novel is set against the backdrop of First War of Independence and it begins at a point when the 'night is too silent' and ends with a gunshot with the horse rider thrown away from his mount. Who is the horse rider and what is his mission? At that time, Shahjahanabad is a city brewing with tension, intrigue, an activated network of spies and informants and the common people resenting the overreach of the Company officials.

Amidst all this, a facade has to be maintained, those in power have to be courted, the good wine has to be drunk, lavish spread to be partaken of and couplets of love and longing have to be recited. It is at one such mushaira or a poetry soiree, hosted by Nawab Ifthikar Hasan that Sukhan Khairabadi, a poet, is found murdered. Almost immediately, hell breaks loose. 

Khairabadi, a bully and a lesser poet, unpopular with the servants of Nawab Ifthikar, is important to the British. The 'why' is revealed slowly, presenting to us a society that has gone to seed and how the nobles kowtow before the next batch of rulers.

The characters that take the story forward are both familiar and unfamiliar. Ghalib, of course, is a familiar name recast in a new avatar and so is Ramchandra Mathur, a science teacher. The Poet Laureate of the Land turns to Mathur, so as to ascertain what befell Khairabadi. In time, Mathur becomes Ghalib's confabulate on the murder and the 'mission' that they eventually team up for. Mathur lived in that period, but as Mir said, not much is known about the association between him and Ghalib. Mohan Lal Zutshi, another historical figure, is imagined in the novel as one of the key ally of the sepoys.

Mir in recreating the bygone era, succeeds in keeping the tone of the novel relevant. At a time when various social media handles churn out Ghalib's poetry, post photos of Purani Dilli, heritage tours promise a walk in the past, the mention of Tomb of Sarmad, Ballimaran, Safdarjung in Murder at the Mushaira, makes the setting so much more personal and riveting. After all, no  one can deny that history is personal. 

Name: Murder at the Mushaira

Author: Raza Mir

Publisher: Aleph Book Company

Pages: 344

Price: Rs 999