Tamil Pulp Fiction

Selections from The Blaft Anthology of Tamil Pulp Fiction

The following stories are taken from The Blaft Anthology of Tamil Pulp Fiction, a volume of stories selected and translated by Pritham Chakravarthy and edited by Rakesh Khanna. More information on Blaft Publications is available at their website. In the U.S the book is available from Amazon.com.

The Stories

The F.L.R., Rajesh Kumar, 2007
Me, Vidya Subramaniam,1987
Revenge, Prajanand V.K., 2005

Translator's Note, Pritham Chakravarthy

Discuss these Stories on the Another Subcontinent Forums

(Copyright for the original stories rests with the authors. English translations and editorial material (c) Blaft Publications 2008.)

Notes on the Authors

Rajesh Kumar may well be the world’s most prolific living writer of fiction. Having begun his writing career in 1968 with the publication of the story “Seventh Test Tube” in Kalkandu magazine, he has written and published more than 1,250 novels and over 2,000 short stories. The selection at virtually any news-stand in the state of Tamil Nadu will include several of his books; the back covers typically feature a ghostly, haloed image of the author’s head, complete with a trademark asymmetrical hairstyle and oversize sunglasses. His shorter stories are frequently found in weekly magazines like Kumudham and Anantha Vikatan. In the mid-nineties, the boom years of Tamil pulp publishing, annual sales of his novels were in the millions of copies.

Commonly bad-mouthed by readers of more serious Tamil literature, not least because of the liberal use of English words and slang in his prose, his stories are nevertheless good fun, highly imaginative, and cover an astonishingly wide range of genres.

Rajesh Kumar lives in Coimbatore with his wife.

Vidya Subramaniam works in the Directorate of Social Welfare in Chennai; she has been writing short stories and novels for twenty years. Of the authors in this anthology, she is the only one to have been previously translated into English. Her protagonists, generally middle-class urban women, are more independent and self-reliant than many in Tamil popular fiction, and her stories often have a glimmer of a feminist edge.

The three monthly publications Great Novel, Best Novel, and Everest Novel, which nearly always carry stories by Rajesh Kumar (and occasionally Indra Soundar Rajan), have a fixed length of 144 pages. If the Rajesh Kumar story is not quite long enough to fill those pages, the publisher looks for short stories to pad the book. Some of these come from Prajanand V.K., an ardent Rajesh Kumar fan and writer who submits his work in envelopes with no return address. At the time of the first printing of the anthology, his identity was unknown; we are happy to announce that he has since come forward, revealing himself to be an 18-year-old college student from Coimbatore.

His disarmingly simple crime fiction stars Sasivaran and Sabapathy, two police detectives with a sense of logic and morality all their own.


home about contact policies submissions feature archives audio visual writing reviews forums art film & television food literature music society & culture elsewhere desilit parabaas sasialit sawnet upper stall	Selections from The Blaft Anthology of Tamil Pulp Fiction The following stories are taken from The Blaft Anthology of Tamil Pulp Fiction, a volume of stories selected and translated by Pritham Chakravarthy and edited by Rakesh Khanna. More information on Blaft Publications is available at their website. In the U.S the book is available from Amazon.com. The Stories The F.L.R., Rajesh Kumar, 2007 Me, Vidya Subramaniam,1987 Revenge, Prajanand V.K., 2005 Translator's Note, Pritham Chakravarthy Discuss these Stories on the Another Subcontinent Forums (Copyright for the original stories rests with the authors. English translations and editorial material (c) Blaft Publications 2008.) Notes on the Authors Rajesh Kumar may well be the world’s most prolific living writer of fiction. Having begun his writing career in 1968 with the publication of the story “Seventh Test Tube” in Kalkandu magazine, he has written and published more than 1,250 novels and over 2,000 short stories. The selection at virtually any news-stand in the state of Tamil Nadu will include several of his books; the back covers typically feature a ghostly, haloed image of the author’s head, complete with a trademark asymmetrical hairstyle and oversize sunglasses. His shorter stories are frequently found in weekly magazines like Kumudham and Anantha Vikatan. In the mid-nineties, the boom years of Tamil pulp publishing, annual sales of his novels were in the millions of copies. Commonly bad-mouthed by readers of more serious Tamil literature, not least because of the liberal use of English words and slang in his prose, his stories are nevertheless good fun, highly imaginative, and cover an astonishingly wide range of genres. Rajesh Kumar lives in Coimbatore with his wife. Vidya Subramaniam works in the Directorate of Social Welfare in Chennai; she has been writing short stories and novels for twenty years. Of the authors in this anthology, she is the only one to have been previously translated into English. Her protagonists, generally middle-class urban women, are more independent and self-reliant than many in Tamil popular fiction, and her stories often have a glimmer of a feminist edge. The three monthly publications Great Novel, Best Novel, and Everest Novel, which nearly always carry stories by Rajesh Kumar (and occasionally Indra Soundar Rajan), have a fixed length of 144 pages. If the Rajesh Kumar story is not quite long enough to fill those pages, the publisher looks for short stories to pad the book. Some of these come from Prajanand V.K., an ardent Rajesh Kumar fan and writer who submits his work in envelopes with no return address. At the time of the first printing of the anthology, his identity was unknown; we are happy to announce that he has since come forward, revealing himself to be an 18-year-old college student from Coimbatore. His disarmingly simple crime fiction stars Sasivaran and Sabapathy, two police detectives with a sense of logic and morality all their own.