Vivaan Shah is at it again. In just a few years’ time, the younger son of Naseerudin Shah has written his third novel, Ranibaug—a treacherous peak situated at the bridge between the lesser and the greater Himalayas that has never been scaled by a mountaineering party; comparable in mystery to K2, Nanga Parbat, and Mount Kailash. Only the bare feet of sadhus and ascetics are said to have trod upon its rocks. A topographical survey team had embarked on a journey in the spring of 1971, never to return.
It is unusual for an actor to simultaneously pursue his skill as a writer but Vivan wrote a short story Entombed very young and never looked back ever since. He acted in films like 7 Khoon Maaf, Happy New Year, Bombay Velvet, and A Suitable Boy and has been onstage from the time he can remember. He adapted the works of Edgar Allan Poe and Ambrose Bierce into a play called Comedy of Horrors years ago and is undisputedly the new voice in the genre of crime fiction. His earlier books are Living Hell and Midnight Freeway.