Set in Mumbai, ‘Slow Burn’ is the story of an actor who hasn’t been able to make it big despite chasing his dreams for years.
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At the heart of Amal Singh’s latest novel, Slow Burn, is a fantasy shared by perhaps all human beings — of living a bigger, better version of our lives. Only here, Singh uses tropes like the magic mirror and the doppelgänger to complicate this fantasy and ponder over questions of identity, moral ambiguity and self-recognition. Set in contemporary Mumbai, Slow Burn is the story of struggling actor Rishi Tripathi who hasn’t been able to make it big despite chasing his dreams for six years. On a bad day, after another audition goes wrong, he punches the mirror in his room only to realise that the act has resulted in him entering a different world. It’s still Mumbai, but a different version. He names this city Mumbai-Right, as opposed to the Mumbai-Left he has left behind. Here, Rishi is Rrish Kumar, a star with many hits to his name.As Rishi begins to fit himself in the life of Rrish, first cautiously and then with increasing confidence, he understands that despite all the success, fame and money, he wants to go back to being Rishi. But becoming Rishi again isn’t easy, and in his desperation to return to Mumbai-Left, he makes choices that blur the line between Rishi and Rrish.
