| Surender Mohan Pathak | |
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| Born | 19 February 1940 Khemkaran, Punjab, India |
| Occupation | Novelist, Officer |
| Genres | crime fiction, murder mystery |
| Literary movement | Golden Age of Detective Fiction |
| Notable work(s) | The 65 Lakh Heist, Daylight Robbery, Mawali, Meena Murder Case, Asafal Abhiyaan, Khaali Vaar, Dhamki |
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Surender Mohan Pathak (Hindi: सुरेन्द्र मोहन पाठक, Punjabi: ਸੁਰਿੰਦਰ ਮੋਹਨ ਪਾਠਕ) (born 19 February 1940 at Khemkaran, Amritsar, Punjab) is an author of Hindi-language crime fiction with nearly 300 novels to his credit. His writing career, along with his full time job in Indian Telephone Industries, Delhi, began in the early 1960s with his brilliant Hindi translations of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels, and the works of James Hadley Chase. He also wrote his own James Bond series.[1]
His first short story, 57 saal puraana aadmi ५७ साल पुराना आदमी (The Man aged 57), was published by मनोहर कहानीयां in 1959, and his first full length novel, Operation Budapest, came out in 1969.
His major work began with what is called the "Sunil" series, सुनील-सीरीज़ which consists of at least 115 novels. Sunil, a debonair and upright investigative journalist for the fictional daily newspaper Blast, lives in the fictional city of Rajnagar. Sunil has a quixotic nature when it comes to damsels in distress, which happens too often and in pursuit of justice, mostly with help of his best friend Ramakant Malhotra, a dipsomaniac and owner of a bar called Youth Club. Sunil often ends up on the wrong side of the law and has to face Inspector Prabhudayal, the exceptionally strict and incorruptible officer in charge of the homicide division.
The "philosopher" detective Sudhir Kumar Kohli is another series character of Pathak. This series is totally reciprocal likewise Sunil as in this dilli ka khaas kism ka haraami is the hero and likewise Inspector Devender Kumar Yadav who can easily be persuaded to do something dishonest. A recent novel of this (in)famous series has been trasnlated by Giriraj Sharan (uncredited) and published by Diamond Books under the title of The Last Goal
However the best-known series of novels of Pathak is Vimal ( विमल ), a.k.a. Sardar Surender Singh Sohal सरदार सुरेन्द्र सिंह सोहल a.k.a. another dozen names he uses to camouflage his identity in the Mumbai underworld. He has taken up arms against gangsters like Rajbahadur Bakhia, and after killing him, his next avatar Iqbal Singh and then Vyaas Shankar Gajre. The Sardar has associates like Tukaram and his henchmen, like Wagle and Irfan, etc. Vimal is not a private detective or police inspector but a criminal wanted in seven states.
Many collections of Joke-books compiled by Pathak have been published. Several authors have been known to plagiarise or "borrow" heavily from his works.
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Two books from Pathak's popular Vimal series: 65 Lakh ki Dakaiti, and Din Dahade Dakaiti were translated to English under the titles The 65 Lakh Heist and Daylight Robbery by Sudarshan Purohit, a Bangalore based software engineer. The 65 Lakh Heist was published in March 2009, and Daylight Robbery in January 2010, both by Blaft, a Chennai based publisher.[5]
Purohit and Blaft are currently working on translating Karamjale, another Vimal novel, into English. This is expected to be titled Fortune's Ransom, due for the end of 2010.[6]
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