Makli Meer Marg: A Novel
While talking about novel in Urdu language some time ago; I
had written that even Pakistani Urdu novel doesn’t match international
standards of novel writing. One main feature that has always been missed out is
the art of storytelling, while the Urdu novelists still follow the traditional
style of narration.
Some of my friends suggested me to read Syed Kashif Raza’s
novel “Char Darvesh aur Aik Kachwa”, to some extent Kashif’s novel had new
style of narration. However, I came across another Urdu novel named “Makli Meer
Marg” by Ghafar Shahzad, published by Fiction House, Lahore in 2020. It contains
207 pages and mainly focuses on Sufi culture of Pakistan.
The main character of this novel is Arslan Mansoor, an
architect settled in America and visits Pakistan to attend an international
conference on Makli, an ancient necropolis located in Sindh. Arslan Mansoor
rather coming to Sindh stays at Lahore, as the writer wanted to highlight Sufi
shrines of Punjab ignoring the Sufi traditions of Sindh.
Another major character of the novel is Tariq Ismail, who
happens to be a journalist and mainly is interested in covering Sufi shrines
and historical places; he does a story on Baba Mastan and is inspired from spiritualism.
Another important character of this novel is Saima Ali, who
was inspired by the stories of saints narrated to her by her grandmother, and
she strives for the project saving the shrine of “Bibi Pak”.
The novel follows the traditional narration style, while
there are certain characters that are left out without any logical ending. On
certain occasions the novel ceases to be literary piece and reader feels like
he/she is reading a journalistic piece or historic record, with too much
detailing without connection to the storyline or the characters. However, the
coming of “Holy ladies” to the subcontinent, who were they and how they reached
Lahore and what happened to them there, seems to be the interesting part of the
novel.
The novel is mainly based on Sufi traditions and shrine
culture in subcontinent, but due to lack of storytelling the novel often turns
into some kind of historic document. While writing a novel a writer should keep
certain elements in view like: curiosity, fantasy and narration. Another
important feature of novel is creating conflict and crisis for the development
of characters, but this novel surely lacks these basic elements.
Another thing that I noticed as a Sindhi reader, that the
title of novel is “Makli” but at least 80% of the setting of this novel is in
Lahore and Punjab, while it hardly mentions Makli and its history. The only
mentions of this great necropolis comes when the characters attend the international
conference, still just vague statements are given about Makli.
While reading this novel I thought that rather than reading
serious literature I was reading some Urdu digest containing popular literature.
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