Mumbai Confidential: Good Cop, Bad Cop was first released in 2013 in hardcover. Its the paperback version that has just been released. Written and illustrated by a duo from the ill fated "Virgin Comics" venture (I loved Snakewoman and Devi and felt quite bad when the venture was disbanded) Saurav Mohapatra (Devi, Witchblade) & Vivek Shinde (Snakewoman, Project : Kalki)
The star of this Noir Graphic Novel, is most definitely the city of Mumbai/Bombay. While not as painstakingly described as in The Anti-Social Network, Mumbai Confidential could not have been set anywhere other than Bombay of the 80's and 90's.
There's a good storyline going, although the story moves back and forth in time quite a bit. The illustrations fit in well with the story with the shifts in monochrome to colour fitting into the progress of the story.
The story centers around Mumbai Cop Arjun Kadam and his "Encounter Specialist" team. Since he dies at the end of the story (or rather the beginning of the book), you knpw that if there is Part 2 of Mumbai Confidential, then it will be with a different hero and a different set of characters.
This is not the kaleidoscopically colourful Devi / Snakewoman, colour is used sparingly in this novel. The art work is nowhere close to Craig Thompson's Habibi, but it is nowhere near as abysmal as Ramayan 3392 AD either.
Its an easy read and very atmospheric. An 80's crime thriller brought to life as a story board, would be the most appropriate description to me.
Rating : 3.5 / 5
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