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What could be more dramatic than a life that lends itself to the script of a film? Zubeidaa, was based on the writer’s own life story. And so is the title story Two Mothers. The title story is the most powerful of the collection and underscores the writer’s skills as a raconteur. All those who have followed Khalid Mohammed’s career as a journalist, film critic and editor of Filmfare would be conversant with his journalistic style. While his narrative style then was underscored by knowledge of world cinema and even while writing about heroes and heroines, he brought in a gravitas that raised the bar. In his first collection of short stories, liberated from the necessity of "dumbing down," as it were, his is a freer voice. He weaves the biographical with the fictional with dexterous writing style that is descriptive and taut, he effortlessly etches word pictures and sweeps along the reader with the force of his narrative style.
With ease, he captures the wheels within wheels of the film industry and the heartlessness of a profession where it is only the use and not the worth of an individual that dictates your interface. Who has not had a crush on the school teacher? The story To Miss Mordecai With Love captures the first flush of a crush ever so gently. It is a sensitively crafted nuanced story that leaves a lot to the imagination and rightly so. The quest for a father, the yearning for a mother’s love and the need for emotional anchor spurs on the protagonist to form many relationships. Scheherezade’s Teacup not only captures the story of an Iranian widow and how the teacup is more than just that, it is the objective correlative for a host of experiences and the autobiographical journey from a bride to a lonely widow whose only companion is the cat Gogoosh. If the flavour of Chandni Chowk filters through in the ironical Ballimaran Sisters, the search for the elusive father assumes an almost mythical quest with A Father, Lost and Found. A Prince in Time dwells on how a prince who does not want to be king is forced to do so by his family. The Resignation Letter is poignant because it focuses on the manner in which even a conscientious newsman, who has given his life to the profession, can be eased out because of the changing face of journalism with the consequent "dumbing down." It is the numerous avatars that broaden his range of experience and he captures nuances of human emotions as well as dynamics of human relationships.. There is always a twist in the ‘tail’ and a lingering pathos in each ‘tale.’One waits for more literary offerings from the man who wrote the script and screenplay for Sardari Begum, Fiza, Mammo, Tehzeeb and Zubeidaa and has made the telling documentary The Last Irani Chai Shop.
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No wonder the first
thing that strikes one about this collection is the cinematic quality of
the writing. You have the flashback technique, telescoping of imagery,
use of zooming in and out deftly, lingering over moments and scenes and
use of repetition, which is not surprising considering the writer has
been associated with movies and cinema for his entire life, be it as a
journalist, reviewer or script writer, playwright and director. There is
a visual element to the writing with word pictures and a versatile use
of language. That is why reading Khalid Mohammed’s collection of 14
short stories transposes the reader to so many worlds, in quick
succession, with their distinctive flavours intact. As if one is
watching not one but many movies, one after the other. Be it the
possessiveness of a grandmother bringing up her grandson not wanting to
share him even with the estranged mother in Two Mothers or the
angst of a wannabe famous director in To Dream or Not to Dream.
Part biographical, part-fictional, the writer is an engaging raconteur
who has a grip on the storyline. There is an underlying tone of
sincerity that imbues his fiction with a felt-experience like tonality. Sunday
Cognac Evenings portrays the symbiotic relationship between a film
journalist and an ageing movie star whom he admires but who is used by
the latter to get publicity.