Set in West Bengal, this rather strange novel explores the vicissitudes of  Maya, a poor but street smart young girl of 16 who is employed and taught by a well meaning but overwrought  and wealthy social worker Amrita Sinha.

After a falling out with her tutor. Maya fails to sit for an important exam and disappears. A  dead body is identified as hers and the fragile Amrita is arrested and sent to jail.

Maya is actually far from dead and has fled to her village after witnessing the murder of the girl believed to be her. Her brother Naren, an unscrupulous Communist cadre worker, is quick to pounce on the opportunity to make a fast buck.

The fragile Amrita, trapped in a joyless marriage, turns for help to an old lover, Paresh, a powerful Left wing politician and professional trouble-shooter of his Minister. The problem is Paresh is still in love with Amrita, someone far above him in the social ladder. In return for his help, Paresh wants his pound of flesh.

The plot unfolds with a narrative written with élan and panache, drawing in the Left wing political intrigue of Kolkata, vivid scenes in the city slums and in rural West Bengal where the ‘black tongue’ of witchcraft and rumour-mongering is rife. Enough here, one would assume, to make for a palatable, readable mixture.

And Anjana Basu can most certainly write. Her prose is fluid and deft, taking on the challenges of movement between different time frames.

But the problem really lies with the protagonist Maya, a vicious and nasty piece of work with little or no redeeming feature to hold the sympathy of the reader.

Her seething hatred of the hapless Amrita is never made convincing. Her motivation towards exacting extreme revenge on her is so contrived that the novel capsizes on its central theme.

This is a great pity, because there is real talent at work here, one capable of the well-rounded, finished article.

The Left wing milieu, the upper class drawing rooms filled with high society do-gooders, the machinations of politicians and party thugs are all well defined and deftly evoked.

But given the tenuous premises and the barely credible trial of Amrita with her presumably influential connections, the novel falters, leaving the reader puzzled by the squandering of so much skilled writing.
Manohar Shetty

‘Black Tongue’ by Anjana Basu; IndiaInk; Rs 295; Pp 301