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Murder, she wrote
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Writer Smitha Jain enjoys doing a balancing act between chick lit and whodunits
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Inking it Smitha Jain
Smita Jain describes her racy, irreverent, impossibly-named book, Kkrishnaa’s Konfessions, as “chick lit meets whodunit.
If you look at mysteries featuring a woman investigator, they have elements of chick lit. There would be romance and work problems. I am huge fan of murder mysteries. So I thought it would be good to marry the genres together.”
Smitha writes for television.
“I work better on thrillers or youth-oriented stuff. Chick lit is an extension of my telly work. Self-deprecating humour comes naturally to me. I wrote for the new Karamchand and Darna Mana Hai. Whenever I tried my hand at drama, the feedback would always be to ‘up the drama quotient’. So I created Kkrishnaa who is writing this prime time soap, Kkangan Souten Ke. I wrote four to five chapters and then took a break. I needed to figure out if I wanted to go the traditional chick lit route or take on a totally different track.”
Concentrated effort
The book was on the backburner as Smitha was suddenly snowed in work. A break saw her return to the novel and a concentrated effort over six months saw the completion of Kkrishnaa’s Konfessions.
The novel follows successful soap writer, Kkrishnaa, in the midst of a writer’s block. Borrowing a telescope from the creepy nerd next door and snooping on the posh high rise for inspiration gets Kkrishnaa more than she bargained for when she witnesses a murder of item girl Malika.
The book has the usual suspects from dream boat former lover and present adversary filmmaker Dev to bumbling cop, CBI official, the underworld, films, face changing with plastic surgery and a bird’s eye view of the world of commercial television replete with “shoom shoom” edits, incidentally called “Madras Cuts”, libidinous head honchos and catty producers.
“Each character is an amalgamation of three real people. So no one can take umbrage,” says the 35-year-old writer.
The trained economist says the book “is unpretentious.
It has to be entertaining every minute and I think I have managed to do that.” There is talk of a film deal, but Smita says it is early days yet.
Admitting this is a wonderful time to an Indian writer, Smitha, who holds a degree in finance, says finding a publisher was “not in the least difficult. Westland accepted in three days. They gave me a good deal and there was not much of rewriting either.”
While the book makes for easy reading, Smitha approached the project with workman- like precision.
The 92,000-word novel was the result of a disciplined routine.
“Writing crime fiction is relatively easy. What you need to is maintain a detailed journal of the who, what, where and how of the crime. Then you just work backwards and you have your perfect whodunit.”
The avid mountaineer and long distance runner prefers to set her novels in Mumbai as she knows the city well.
“It is the film and commercial capital. This makes for a potent cocktail.” Before churning out engaging scripts and stories, Smitha was an investment banker.
Ask her what it is about bankers turning novelists and Smitha laughs saying: “I guess it is just coincidence. I made the switch in 2002. So it is not like I copied Chetan Bhagat or anything like that. I guess it is just our generation willing to experiment more.” Future plans include a follow up to Kkrishnaa…. “Of course a sequel is on the cards. I am just taking a break from her. I am already 30,000 words into my next novel, which is in the same genre.”
MINI ANTHIKAD-CHIBBER
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