The Plots Thicken

Strap on your seatbelt, because Kunal Basu's Filmi Stories is a racy and rollicking read

- Amit Dixit

FILMI STORIES

by Kunal Basu

PENGUIN VINTAGE

Filmi Stories was writer Kunal Basu’s pandemic project. After all, what better way for a writer to allay the effects of cabin fever than to take up the pen. “In the fleeting spring of 2021, as the world was reeling from the pandemic, I thought to write a few stories to drive out the despair that was filling me up like smoke in a chimney stack,” says Basu in the ‘Prologue’ to this short story collection. He dipped into his Havana cigar box, where he kept hastily scribbled notes brimming with story ideas, but that didn’t do the trick. Inspiration manifested in unexpected and dramatic ways–during a game of Monopoly in one case–not unlike the stories themselves.

The eight stories in this collection have wild premises and plotlines. A corpse in a well-tailored suit is found on a beach in one. In another, the protagonist finds himself to be the sole passenger on an airplane flying from one deserted airport to another. Yup, very filmi. In the hands of a skilled storyteller with a fecund imagination like Basu, seemingly incongruous matter aligns harmoniously on the page, albeit with a dark twist.