Pulp fiction is back!

It's time to rewind to regional pulp fiction as over-the-top heroes, villains and outlandish plots make for a quickie read. Anuradha Varma reports

Lyricist and scriptwriter Javed Akhtar credits reading Ibne Safi's novels for helping him creating eternal celluloid villains like Gabbar Singh and Mogambo. Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap grew up wanting to be either Amitabh Bachchan or writer Surender Mohan Pathak. Actress Gul Panag even invited her favourite novelist Pathak to the premiere of her film Rann.

Besides Bengali detectives Feluda and Byomkesh Bakshi, Hindi, Urdu and Tamil pulp fiction heroes can keep many readers up at night turning pages of their slim detective novels. "Pocket books" or novellas, these became popular at book stalls at railway stations over 50 years ago.

Publishing houses are now giving the books fresh airing. Westland, along with Blaft, has published four translations of Ibne Safi's Jasusi Duniya series. Ibne Safi, the pen name of Asrar Ahmad, was once described as "the only original writer in the subcontinent" by Agatha Christie and wrote 125 novels in his lifetime.

Full report here Times of India