“Nani is deft with the smoke and mirrors and translates Conan Doyle’s stories into modern set in Mumbai versions.”
NO MAJOR SPOILERS
Sherlock Holmes spin offs are all the rage. It was only a matter of time before someone decided to do a version of the super sleuth set in Mumbai with a teen detective. The name of course is a clever twist – because Shrilok lives with his tea seller uncle and has no home.
Pika Nani – the name is a pseudonym – follows the modern Sherlock series by turning her tales into variations of Arthur Conan Doyle’s originals.
Shrilok’s cases have names like The Adventure of the Red Signal League, The Hounds of Bhaskarville – two basset pups who vanish into the fog – The Pink Gem and The Final Locha which evoke the original stories for readers.
Shrilok has a sidekick called Rohan Doctor, the school going son of two Parsee professionals who stands in for Watson and occasionally gets sent out to collect information on his own. Nani is deft with the smoke and mirrors and translates Conan Doyle’s stories into modern set in Mumbai versions with ATMs and vada pau and a host of characters that Mubaikars will recognise.
It is of course necessary that young readers are familiar with the originals because a great deal of the fun gets lost otherwise – but yes, Irene Adler cannot be translated as a nine year old child perky or otherwise!
Reviewed by:
Anjana Basu
Added 5th September 2017
