Crime Today News
When Adolf Hitler invaded Poland, an order came to an orphanage in Warsaw stating that all the Jewish children there should be sent to the gas chamber. Dr Janusz Karczok (a Christian), the founder of this orphanage, did not want to leave the children alone. However, before going to the gas chamber, he made his sons perform a play. Karczok had read the German translation of Rabindranath Tagore’s play Dak Ghar (The Post Office). Through the play, he wanted to teach his children that death was not the end of life – beyond death lies eternal life.
When Narayan Sanyal wrote a book based on this incident, he named it Mrityorma Amritam, which in the Upanishads means “from darkness to light”.
Narayan Sanyal was born in the industrial township of Hind Motor in April 1924. Although a civil engineer by profession, he wrote some 150 books in his 81-year-long life. He grew up in Krishnanagar and would jokingly call himself Krishnakoli – “the black-eyed”. It is not possible to confine him to any particular genre, and each book is unique in its theme and style. The boundless variety of topics that he wrote about was perhaps why he was so different from other writers. He was not interested in restricting his writing to any one subject and would dabble in various subjects with practised ease.
Perhaps that is why even now readers find themselves unable to categorise Sanyal’s writings. He wrote difficult, jargon-heavy science books, and he also wrote lighthearted books for children, science fiction novels that would delight any teenager, and detective fiction that would keep anyone up all night. Sanyal’s day job as a civil engineer did not prove to be an obstacle to his remarkable literary output.
Of course, elite literary circles continue to believe that Sanyal’s work is not entirely original. They claim that he was heavily inspired by foreign detectives and borrowed liberally from foreign authors. The claims are not entirely untrue, but his popularity among readers speaks volumes about how much they revere his writing.
Dismissing these allegations, the writer Banaful (Balaichand Mukhopadhyay) had said to him, “You have read a lot, worked a lot. You have not received cheap applause. The value of your contributions to Bengali literature has not been diminished even a little.”
From Paul Drake and Perry Mason to PK Basu
Narayan Sanyal’s mystery series, however, began with Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay. When Bandyopadhyay was writing the Byomkesh Bakshi story Vishupal Badh, his pen stopped halfway upon his death. At the request of his friend Pratul Chandra Gupta, Sanyal finished the novel, which was later published in the Sharadiya (fall) issue of Mahanagar magazine by writer Samaresh Basu, under the title Vishupal Badh: Upasanghar.
Inspired by American writer Earl Stanley Gardner’s “Perry Mason” murder-mystery series, Sanyal started writing his “Kanta” series in the 1970s. The first novel in this series was Nagchampa, where Prasannakumar Basu alias PK Basu first meets the readers for the first time. Director Tarun Majumdar adapted it into a film called Jadi Jantem in 1974 (starring Uttam Kumar, Supriya Devi, and Soumitra Chatterjee). The protagonist’s essential details were changed in the film. In the novel, the barrister-detective was an elderly man and a bachelor, whereas in the film, he is young and married. However, his wife Ranu is confined to a wheelchair.
The author said that Nagchampa was like a trial for him. When Byomkesh Bakshi, Parashar Varma and Kiriti were silent, Sanyal introduced a new detective to Bengali fiction. He was sceptical whether the reader would take to PK Basu at all. After the trial, he wrote his first full-length PK Basu novel, Sonar Kanta, in 1974, and dedicated it to Byomkesh Bakshi. Although most of the stories in the “Kanta” series were written in the style of Perry Mason, this story was in imitation of Agatha Christie’s famous play The Mousetrap.
Sanyal’s stories were often borrowed, and they seldom made it to the “elite” list of Bengali literature. Nevertheless, he did not lose sleep over it. In the 1970s, he was churning out stories for the “Kanta” series one after another, and the majority of Bengali readers were not aware of any Perry Mason. If anything, they were happy with their own PK Basu.
Sanyal was primarily published by Dey’s. According to booksellers of that time, books written by Sanyal were sold out almost before they were even put on the shelves. Not only the “Kanta” series, but also his children’s books (Sherlock Hebo, Disneyland), science and fantasy books (Biswasghatak, Abak Prithibi, Aji Hote Shatobarsho Pore), or travel stories (Dandakashabari, Japan Theke Phire) – were very popular with readers at the time.
Nineteen PK Basu stories were published by 1998. Most of these stories were inspired by Erle Stanley Gardner (such as The Case of the Beautiful Beggar), while some were based on Agatha Christie’s novels (such as Three Act Tragedy).
Hollywood comeback
In June and July of 2023, Sabnyal’s Biswasghatak (The Traitor) suddenly returned to the front racks in most Bengali bookstores. Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster hit Oppenheimer was the reason.
The film brought the book back to the Bengali reader’s consciousness. Sanyal wrote the novel in 1974, focusing on the Manhattan Project and the creation of nuclear weapons, and Oppenheimer (a biography of J Robert Oppenheimer, who was a pioneer in creating the atom bomb), reminded many (especially those who grew up in the 1980s and 1990s) of the thrilling book they had read in their teens. Even those who had not read this book were running to the bookstores to get their copy.
Writer Syed Mujtaba Ali once said, “No one goes bankrupt buying books,” and now, a hundred years later, Sanyal is still the reason many Bengali continue to make a beeline for bookstores. During the Kolkata International Book Fair in 2025, it was a common sight to see readers clamouring for Sanyal’s books. The only complaint: He was not sitting outside the stall waiting to sign the freshly-purchased copies.
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