In his debut work, Saharu Nusaiba Kannanari sets the mise-en-scene at a measured pace, introducing the reader to the various characters of Vaiga village in the foothills of the Western Ghats, with the rain in the vanguard of the cast. Even for Kerala, this is torrential rain, pouring down relentlessly, bringing down trees, old houses, flooding the river, snapping electricity, a storm playing on the villagers’ nerves.
Not everyone, however, is staying indoors during the storm. Burhan sneaks off for a tryst with his paramour—a married woman 15 years his senior. There is no sentimental love story we are offered about this couple. Reyhana spots the handsome Burhan at a travel agency where he is minding the store for a friend, and quite calculatingly entraps him. Trapped in a loveless marriage to a man she loathes, now working in the Gulf, this is an act of revenge for her, despite all the risks involved.
News of their affair has already leaked and Reyhana’s brother-in-law and his sons set off in the downpour, to rough up and warn off the young man. Emotions and matters spin quickly out of control, and there is a scuffle that turns violent. All of it is captured on phones and soon disseminated via social media.
Now the kerfuffle takes on a life of its own and there’s no stopping what happens next: a riot, with most of the men in Vaiga taking a sanctimonious stand on this affair and determined to play some part in meting out punishment, a macabre one at that. The lynch mob takes a step back, not too sure of the nature of the beast they have unleashed.
The politics involved in this story is not communal in content; this is politics of the heart. The affair involves two Muslims, and every Muslim in the village decides to take a stand and become, as the author writes, righteous beyond religion. Meanwhile, Nabeesumma, the hapless mother of Burhan, is trying her best to stop the madness.
Then, there is the Imam, half-heartedly trying to gather his flock and point them towards piety, then retreating as the horror grows. There is the (non-Muslim) loose-lipped Chinnan, spreader of all and any gossip that comes his way. His sensible wife Panchami locks him up in the house to prevent him from gathering other disaffected people; only, that is akin to asking the rain to hold back its fury.
Kannanari infuses the unsettling story with a sadness that permeates the place, the people, the happenings. In an hour and a half, a village is torn apart savagely. He quotes Don Delillo saying, the future belongs to crowds and this chronicle of chaos is apt testimony to the truth of that. Sometimes when poison spreads, it takes on the strength of a tidal wave.
Chronicle of an Hour and a Half
By : Saharu Nusaiba Kannanari
Publisher: Westland Books
Price: Rs 599
Pages: 201