Ayesha Pattnaik

I haven't even finished reading this book till now but I guess the content of the remaining pages will be more or less the same as that of the preceding pages, viz - summary of old Bollywood movies with parts that fit the author's hypothesis that the Bollywood hero of yore espoused Gandhian principles of abstinence and hence quite compulsively looked away from riches and sex highlighted. The author actually has a point as a pattern emerges from examination of movie after movie. But for how long can the reader tolerate so much repetition. It gets dreary. And half way into it you want to put the book down. Around page 130 the book pivots widely away from its avowed central theme to accommodate descriptions of the scene and setting of Hindi songs that the author goes the extra mile to provide graphic details about. It's amusing how hard he tries to read sex into songs that many of us have watched and relished so innocently in the presence of elders even. There's so much gusto evident in these descriptions by the author I have wondered many times during the course of reading this book if the author wants to educate the reader or tittilate the reader. Besides I have a feeling the author projects an excessive amount of his personal values while analysing these movies. He cites situation after situation where the hero walks away from situations where he (the author)  thinks women are making subtle advances at him (the hero). This walking away could be simply decency of the hero, but the author insists on valorising it as something exceptional that can happen only in the fictional realm of Hindi movies, quite unintentionally hinting at what would have been his move had he found himself in a similar situation. Also somewhere in the book the author termed a rape by the movie villain an "adventure" . All this speaks a lot about the author's personal ethos. To read this book or not? Yes, if you are an ardent movie buff and would actually relish abridged retelling of your favorite movies in this book . No, if you wish for a deeper study of its other facets for eg. if it's a patently Indian phenomenon or there are instances from other parts of the world where a national hero plays a subliminal role in movies of an era or if this model has also been replicated in regional movies in India etc.

I read this book that runs into 500 odd pages with a sort of breathless eagerness. To the author's credit, the language, the way the book is structured, topics included, all makes for a gripping read. Especially for someone who has seen Mumbai in brief snatches, either on the silver screen or during vacations to Mumbai, en route to Goa. The book has pages devoted to everything one would associate with Mumbai. The underworld, the bar dancers, the inhabitants of tinsel town, wealthy diamond merchants, super cops, the mumbai local, the youngster from the Hindi heartland for whom Mumbai is a muse fuelling his literary pursuits, all make an appearance and stay with you for long enough to satiate your curiosity about their lives and lives they affect. The reader is brought up close and personal with these characters as each of them tells you their story, that has the city looming in the background as canvas of their yarn. This being the first of its kind of book I read, I can't say if it's better or worse than most books of the genre. But the book has enough merits to be adjudged an interesting read, without it being referenced against its peers.

Why does Chetan Bhagat even write books? Edit - People who don't read Chetan Bhagat will anyway skip the book. People who read his books might be interested in the following points; i. Bhagat has caught on to the theme of bro-mance. Nothing original. Recent bollywood flicks must have inspired this line of thinking. ii. Bhagat is sold out to advertisers. This book with its truck loads of references to well known brands might be a case study in subliminal advertising in novels, if this book can be called that. iii. Language used is Champak level (no offense, I grew up reading Champak, but you don't expect that kind of language in a novel meant for adults. I also think it's targeted at a teen audience therefore makes sense. iv. Rampant misuse of banking terminology. Read somewhere that Bhagat is an ex-banker. Hence he should have known what's the difference between pledge and mortgage, siphoning and laundering etc. v. Finally as expected it's a new gen bollywood movie in book format.Both are equally hopeless. I can already imagine the cast of this movie, Keshav - Kartik Aryan, Saurabh - The guy that plays chucha in Fukrey or Aditya Roy Kapur's brother who isn't married to Vidya Balan, Anjali - Alia Bhatt (may be a bit off mark here), Adi Mamu/Chachu - Aditya Roy Kapur

The most striking feature of this book is that, stories of painfully abject poverty, of discrimination that plunged human life to bottomless depths of humiliation and dehumanisation and heroics that remained unflinching in the face of danger and uncertainty are told with an even unwavering matter of fact tenor. May be this indicates the internalisation of adversities by those who are born to it. The book has been written in a very simple language, and the author sticks to the original chronology of events, which makes it very straightforward yet engaging. By the end, one if left distraught, and inclined to question one's previleges. Though the book explores the topic of untouchability, the stories of Manjula, born to the baleful intersectionality of being an untouchable female, are the most heart rending. I recommend this book.