Hyderabad, March 6 -- The backdrop of middle 19thcentury North India has made for some excellent storytelling, be it the Aamir Khan-starrerMangal Pandeyor William Dalrymple'sThe Last Mughal.Clearly, the latter's influence is apparent in New Jersey-based Management Professor and author Raza Mir's latest offering,Murder at the Mushaira.

With Mirza Ghalib as the protagonist and a setting around the build-up to the 1857 mutiny against the colonialist British, readers would enjoy events. And those who had seen the 1988Doordarshan serialGhalibwill feel nostalgic about it. Like in Vikram Seth'sA Suitable Boy, every chapter inMurder at the Mushairais prefaced with a couplet before it paints a vivid picture of North Indian society on the cusp of ...