The Garden of Earthly Delights is tightly plotted. In Calcutta, Hiren Bose runs an STD booth out of his fiancee’s house at 14 Banamali Naskar Lane. In Prague, author Manik Basu is persuaded by thugs hired by his publisher to write a long-overdue novel. Their lifelines meld. Hiren’s an insomniac with an arson fetish looping out of control. His life transformed by fire, he returns to the company of his old mates at the "mess" presided over by Ghanada at 72, Banamali Naskar Lane. Manik is meanwhile writing what we must assume to be Hiren’s story at manic pace. A few twists later, the twinned lines of Bose-Basu snap in Kafkaesque fashion.
There are resonances only Bengalis steeped in Premendra Mitra’s tales of Ghanada and his milieu will hear. It’s an open question whether Hazra’s craft is good enough to translate his imaginative flight into engagement with audiences unaware of the literary context. Regardless, it’s an interesting effort.
