Thursday, March 28, 2013

Chanakya's Chant

Interspersing past with the present, Ashwin Sanghi takes the reader in his quest to understand the intricacies of Arthasastra as composed by Chanakya, the shrewd Brahmin who emerged as the most famous kingmaker in the history of India. Driven by vengeance, Chanakya’s tactics to overthrow Dhanananda, unite Bharat under a single ruler and shield the country against foreign dominance will no doubt amaze the ordinary. Drawing parallel to the historic character, Sanghi develops an equally shrewd yet unassuming Gangasagar Misra as he evolves on his way to place his protégé Chandini Gupta as the PM of India. To this effect he stops at nothing and emerges as ruthless opportunist with a political cunning surpassing all the peers of the country. Though fast paced in the first quarter, the storyline clearly becomes over dramatic in the rest where Chanakya’s part remains gripping but Gangasagar becomes ordinary characterwise. At the start I thought we now have a Mario Puzo in Sanghi but my premonition was obliterated as the story progressed. One of the most important fallacies of the fiction part was that Gangasagar’s character evolution was rapid that seemed to catapult his maturity in the most convenient time rather than what would have been correct. His mentor in diplomacy, Agrawalji seemed unjustifiably to lose his cunning as the same matured in Gangasagar. Also the dramatic dialogues, more interesting for a Bollywood endeavour, became a mere repetition of style that compromised the seriousness that the plot demanded. But the most glaring problem, which I don’t know how the writer missed, was that Gangasagar did not have a clearly justified goal in his otherwise clearly defined mission. Chanakya was motivated by revenge and then came his dream of unification of the country. Puzo’s dons aspired to rule the criminal syndicates for business and security for their family. But Gangasagar seemed all of a sudden bent to make a female PM deriving inspiration from an age old rock craving allegedly attributed to Vishnugupta. For this he never wavered to kill the innocent who seemed inconvenient obstacle and placed all the evil men in his side to rule the country (of innocent?). So though a smooth reading material but the story as a whole remains a bit ordinary.

Sunday, March 03, 2013

Mafia Queens of Mumbai Stories of Women from the Ganglands

As I was reading through the anecdotes of the queens of the underworld, the first thing that struck me was these were the missing pieces of the puzzles that were left incomplete in the Zaidi's narrative of the male dons of Mumbai. Infact the narrative was compact and even more fast paced as compiled by Hussain Zaidi and Jane Borges. The murky lands of the underworld, traversed prominently by the masculine hand had always been guided by the feminine shadow, at least in several cases, as has been documented here. With chill running down the spine, the readers may find truth a bit more harsh and a bit more scaring than it appears. Be it the story of love and lust, crime and revenge, manipulations and politics - the ladies were in no way less scheming than the others. Plotting crimes of the deadliest kind they played their part whenever the men found the heat rising. Starting from housewives to abandoned elopers, the aspirations to rise high in crime or the desperation catapulted them in their path to the evil corners of society. Some became dangerous, some generous while for some the fate could not have been worse. But it all created a new facet of the crime world - that portrayed by shrewd ladies which challenged the security of many.

Friday, March 01, 2013

Postern of Fate

The couple that unearthed secrets of the enemy camp has now aged and wants to retire to a village life devoid of sleuthing. But mystery seems always to follow them and so does murder. Thus again the aged duo teams up with the police and the like to unearth a long lasting secret that left clues in certain particular places. Though the excitement starts early but it dampens midway, so unlike Christie novel, but the rambling of the aged couple seems sometimes too much and near the end it is not with the signature Christie twist. The mystery was woven fantastically but it seemed an abrupt way of unravelling it. Another disappointing fact was that several of their earlier exploits have been quoted here and may prove a spoiler for those who reads this before the others.