Title: Dakhma
Author: K. Hari Kumar
Publisher: HarperCollins India
Genre: Thriller, Horror Fiction
Pages: 280
‘The mind fears the unknown, and it becomes jittery when it has to
ponder about death.’
K. Hari Kumar’s Dhakhma, is an enthralling psychological thriller. With limited characters, great premise, and good writing craft, Kumar manages to deliver a ghost story that is so captivating and convincing as well.
‘I saw a woman at the balcony a couple of nights ago. And yesterday, I had a terrible dream. Every night something weird happens.’
Basically, the plot revolves around a couple, Anahita and Varun. Varun works for political parties, as an image consultant, one of his clients ruling the Delhi assembly. He uses media and data science to influence voters. While, Varun scales the commercial ladder, Anahita’s life passes by like a routine. She has been living amid hallucinated voices in her mind, her acute stress disorder triggers anxiety and multiple phobias. She is often doubtful about her marriage.
Twist comes into their life, when they move into a new city, precisely, into a new building, 7E paradise heights. Anahita starts facing some weird experiences ̶ woman in a fluttering maroon dress, drenched in the rain, standing outside her window, looking at her piercingly ̶ when she shares the creepy incident with Varun, he doesn’t take her seriously, ‘No one can climb on the seventh floor of this building in the rain, unless she is some super power or a ghost.’
‘All those curiosities of infanthood, obsession of adolescences, and
ambitions of adulthood just spiral back into a womb of nothingness. Death.’
After delving into the history, Anahita got to know that It was a home to a woman called Parizaad, who sacrificed her daughter to some deity. She meets with Hira Tejwani, a paranormal expert who plays on Anahita’s fears and doubts, just like a scavenging hyena.
Then, there is a subplot, brings Anahita’s school friend, Mehr, into the story. It reveals eventually some unusual memories of past. How Anahita deals with such surroundings, that’s how character grow.
Dakhma, the title intrigued me the most, and it echoed time to time. Although it is a horror book, yet it speaks of anxiety issues, love, power, hope, sacrifice and death as well.
The scariest thing of this story is when author introduces the term Bruja Shamana, that leads to the backstory of Parizad and other evil powers. Basically, the fear part exists in its details. Some sequences really give you sense of dread.
This story really makes you think about the things that science unable to explain. K. Hari Kumar really knows the game of emotions and conflicting feelings. I loved how he able to maintain a particular environment throughout the book.
The story is creepy enough yet entertaining. Its fast-paced thriller, with an involving plot, that kept you reading in a go. If you are into this genre, it can be a perfect weekend read.
About the Author
K. Hari Kumar, a.k.a. ‘Horror Kumar’, is an Indian
screenwriter and bestselling author of horror and psychological thriller
novels. Hari is the first Indian writer to be listed on Amazon.com's top 50
bestsellers in the horror category. He has also written 50 horror short stories
that were published in his 2019 book India’s Most Haunted (HarperCollins
India), which The Times of India deemed a must-read horror book and which was
listed among HarperCollins India’s 100 best books written by Indian writers. It
was the highest grossing horror book in 2020, making him the top horror writer
in the country. His 2018 psychological thriller, The Other Side of Her, spawned
the acclaimed Hindi language web series Bhram (2019). Currently, he is
producing a series of regional-language short horror films based on Indian
myths and folktales.
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