Review: Ibne Safi series

One of the quirkiest and most prolific Urdu writers of the 20^th century, Ibne Safi migrated to Pakistan shortly after the publication of the first Jasusi Dunya novel. His novels had a cult fan following not just in Pakistan but also in India.

Jasusi Dunya is an intricately demented world of larger than life villains, beautiful femme fatales and mad genius detectives. The series spans 125 novels published between 1952 and 1979 and continue being bestselling books in Urdu till date.

Tranquebar along with Blaft publications has published some of the translated works of Jasusi Dunya by Ibne Safi. First of all it is commendable that publication houses are making an effort to translate such works for a bigger reading audience.

I did read Poisoned Arrow which I found was very predictable. The two detectives, Colonel Faridi and Captain Hameed are immensely likeable but the detective story is nothing extraordinary. The other titles in the series are yet to be read.

But yes considering that they form a part of a cult following you might want to pick up a few titles in the series.