On a recent Friday evening, a gathering of accomplished lawyers in Delhi set aside their courtroom duties to engage in a literary discussion. They delved into The Figure in the Fog: Malti Jakhar Case Files, penned by Manini Brar, a practicing commercial lawyer. This event provided an intimate glimpse into why Brar devoted five years to crafting a murder mystery alongside her legal career, and the deeper messages she aimed to convey through her writing.
An Evening with Legal Minds
The panel, comprising mainly of legal professionals, included Sherbir Panag, founder of the law firm Panag, Babu & Sarangi; Mishika Singh, founder of the pro bono legal aid trust Neev; Sumant Batra, an insolvency lawyer and author; Pragya Parijat, a Supreme Court advocate-on-record; Satyajit Sarna, a Delhi High Court advocate and author; and Mumtaz Bhalla, Equity Partner at ELP, who coordinated the audience Q&A. Mansi Shetty from Juggernaut Books also participated, representing the publishing house.
A Murder Mystery with Legal Intrigue
The Figure in the Fog follows the story of Malti Jakhar, a lawyer with a decade of experience managing a small, financially challenged practice in Delhi. Assisted by her clerk, Chandan Pal, and her junior, Charu, Malti’s tale unfolds when she is approached by Gola Pithaan, a young man from a fictitious village where beliefs in djinns are rampant. Gola admits to killing a man, mistaking him for a djinn during a religious festival. The story draws inspiration from the 1958 case of State Of Orissa v. Ram Bahadur Thapa, exploring the intersection of mens rea with cultural beliefs in supernatural threats.
Exploring Deeper Themes
During the event, panelists selected and read passages that resonated with them, including scenes of courtroom dynamics and Malti’s compelling closing arguments. Sherbir Panag noted the authenticity of Brar’s voice, familiar to him from her writings in Bar & Bench. Satyajit Sarna compared the book’s courtroom scenes to those in Dickens’s Bleak House, highlighting the blend of humor and gravity.
Brar shared her deliberate choice to base her narrative on events from decades ago, stating, “I think it’s important to put layers between the happening of a story and your real circumstances, so that you can suspend your disbelief and actually listen to the story as a story and perhaps then receive the message that it conveys.”
A Journey of Creation
Brar revealed the book’s journey from inception to publication, beginning during her pregnancy with her eldest son. The initial draft was completed quickly, but the subsequent five years were spent refining it, with her father acting as her first editor. After numerous revisions and the birth of her second child, she found a publishing partner in Juggernaut.
Discussing the choice of a criminal trial and tribal backdrop, Brar explained her motivation, “When we all first decided we wanted to be lawyers, there would have been a human and social angle to it. You wanted to do something for someone, you wanted to be something and I think through this book, I’m living that fantasy of being a trailblazing human rights lawyer who can set the world right.”
Brar emphasized that her legal career provides the material for her writing, asserting, “I couldn’t be a writer if I wasn’t a lawyer. All my material comes from the fact that I’m a lawyer and I don’t think I would have anything to write about if it wasn’t for the law and for what I see. At my core, I will always be a lawyer!”
