Twists & thrills: A crime lit fest delves into crime, social justice and criminal psychology

The festival opened on Friday evening amid several stars of this genre, including prominent writers, filmmakers, and actors Prakash Jha, Anubhav Sinha and Kavita Kaushik. Former Uttarakhand DGPs Aloke Lal and Ashok Kumar are the festival’s director and chairman, respectively.

The Dehradun crime litfest, attended by a host of crime writers and filmmakers, being inaugurated on Friday
The Dehradun crime litfest, attended by a host of crime writers and filmmakers, being inaugurated on Friday

Be it books or films, crime sells. So it is perhaps apt to celebrate crime fiction with a litfest of its own. At Dehradun in Uttarakhand, the second edition of the Crime Literature Festival of India (CLFI) is doing just that.

The festival opened on Friday evening amid several stars of this genre, including prominent writers, filmmakers, and actors Prakash Jha, Anubhav Sinha and Kavita Kaushik. Former Uttarakhand DGPs Aloke Lal and Ashok Kumar are the festival’s director and chairman, respectively. Lal told FE: “Every one in five books in India is in the crime genre, but awareness about crime is not as high. A litfest seemed an appropriate way to generate awareness. We plan to take this initiative to other cities as well.”

On the first day of CLFI, Jha—of Gangaajal (2003), Raajneeti (2010), Aarakshan (2011), and Satyagraha (2013) fame —talked about the consequences of crime and the culture built around it in India’s heartland. “Crime is everywhere around us and in all forms. There are rules and regulations in place, and forces trying to control it, but it’s really all pervasive in society. So writing about it becomes important, which is why festivals like this become important.”

Other highlights of the festival so far include former high-ranking officials of the police speaking about the Batla House encounter, the elimination of dacoit Paan Singh Tomar, and what it’s like to be an IPS officer—the extraordinary lives and the cases you get to work on. Journalist Jupinderjit Singh helmed a panel about the killing of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala.

Throwing light on pop culture, Avinash Singh Tomar, the writer of Amazon Prime Video’s hit series Mirzapur, talked about the crime genre in India, while FIR fame actor Kavita Kaushik talked about why cop characters shine in slapstick comedies. There were also sessions on India’s most famous prisoners, how crime writing impacts society, and exploring politics through crime fiction.

Maanas Lal, secretary, Dehradun Cultural & Literary Society, and curator of the festival, said: “The idea to start this festival began at a bookshop in Dehradun, and we only hope it grows from strength to strength. We aim to make it a travelling festival in the future and not limit it to only Dehradun. Our focus is on crime prevention, and we’re glad to have brought together a great mix of law enforcers, authors, filmmakers, and of civil society. This is a unique initiative and we hope it inspires people and increases awareness about how we can tackle crime. The attendance this year has been encouraging for us as well, so we hope to see the crowds building more in the future too.”

On Sunday, the festival will be honouring Hindi writer Surendra Mohan Pathak with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to the crime genre through his original as well as translated works, which span more than 300 novels. While on the final day, the festival is set to organise workshops on criminal psychology and pitching crime books to publishers, it also has a segment for school principals and teachers to teach them about the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, or POCSO. Awards will also be given to school and university students for their short stories and short movies in the crime genre.

(The writer is in Dehradun at the invitation of CLFI)

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