'Backlash' by VM Devadas explores a retired policeman's reckoning with his bitter past

A policeman’s home is usually the last place anyone would dare target. It does not matter if he is a sub-inspector or a humble constable—few would risk incurring the wrath of the state’s machinery by throwing a stone at a cop’s house, even in the dead of night. It is not because they lack enemies, but because no one wants to invite new ones. However, the dynamics of power shift dramatically once the uniform comes off. Upon retirement, a police officer is stripped of his institutional armour and becomes just another ordinary citizen.

For Sreedharan Nair, a retired police officer, this transition is particularly stark. During his active years in service, Nair was feared and infamously nicknamed 'Kalan'—the Grim Reaper. The moniker spoke volumes about his methods. Now retired, he lives a seemingly peaceful life with his wife, while their daughter resides in the US with her husband. When Nair's wife travels to the US to assist with their daughter's delivery, Nair is left behind to manage the house alone. He does not mind the solitude, but his peace is abruptly shattered by a nightly barrage of stones targeted at his roof tiles.

A hunt through a dark past
What initially seems like random mischief quickly reveals itself to be a deliberate and targeted campaign of harassment. As the broken roof tiles pile up, Nair realises that the perpetrator is not attacking the house, but the man inside it. It is a reckoning for the decades of cruelty he meted out in the name of the law. When Nair searches his memory for potential suspects, he is confronted with a long, haunting list of victims—both living and dead. He remembers the families left behind, knowing all too well that hatred and vengeance do not die with a single generation; they are often passed down like heirlooms.

This quest to unmask the invisible enemy transforms VM Devadas’s novel, Backlash , from a simple mystery into a profound journey. Translated seamlessly into English by Nandakumar K, the story moves beyond a personal vendetta to explore the broader political, social, and historical landscape of Kerala and India. Sreedharan Nair was not just an officer enforcing the law; he was a man who frequently operated outside its boundaries, taking the law into his own hands and, at times, writing his own rules.

The scars of state violence
In his search for answers, Nair is forced to revisit the dark chapters of his career. Among the ghosts of his past is Antony, an activist-turned-actor nicknamed 'Goliath' after playing the biblical giant in a play. Antony had been rounded up during the notorious investigations into the Kayanna police station attack during the Emergency, alongside the student activist Rajan. It was Nair who had hunted Antony down, tortured him till he spat blood, and quietly buried the investigation without ever filing a formal case. Nair also remembers the many others who took their own lives, unable to survive the trauma of his interrogation rooms.

As Nair visits these broken families, he discovers that every life he touched has become a story of survival, silence, and lingering pain. Devadas masterfully paints a rich, diverse portrait of contemporary social and political life, showing how systemic violence reverberates across decades.

A contemporary reckoning
The scope of Nair's investigation eventually widens, reaching as far as the relatives of a young Malayali man shot dead in Gujarat on charges of plotting to assassinate the state’s Chief Minister. Nair attempts to use modern surveillance tools, installing CCTV cameras around his property, but technology offers no easy answers. The file remains open, the mystery deepens, and the tension escalates. Reaching an unexpected and powerful climax set against a volatile socio-political backdrop, *Backlash* delivers a blow not just to its protagonist, but to the collective conscience of our times.

Backlash by Devadas VM, translated by Nandakumar K, is published by Ekadā, an imprint of Westland Books, and is priced at ₹499.