Review: The Russian Woodpecker by Chad Gracia

Russian Woodpecker is a very original and courageous documentary. Cold War led to many technological breakthroughs, some creative and some destructive. In the erstwhile USSR, the Chernobyl disaster stands out as a sore thumb, igniting memories of shame and failure. Fedor Alexandrovich, a survivor of the aforementioned event, sets out investigating a relic of the old times – the Duga Radar, which was built as a warning system, given the paranoid state in which the two superpowers were.

Fedor’s line of investigation is however focused on connecting the lose tracks between Chernobyl and Duga Radar. Was the Chernobyl leakage effected by linked to the Duga Radar? Was the radar a failure? Was someone powerful enough connected with the radar and the catastrophic leak?

Fedor, with his childlike antics, but persistent dirt-digging, reaches a conclusion dreary enough to give chills. His playfulness in the rubble of still radioactive rubble is not stupid, but norm-defying.

A must watch.

See it on Vimeo.

 

Review: Byculla to Bangkok by Hussain Zaidi

Following the first book, Dongri to Dubai, the author continues the saga of the sordid underworld gangsters in this one. Unlike the first one, which majorly focused on Dawood Ibrahim, he focuses on Maharashtrian boys and men, who made it big. However, Dawood, Memon and others were Maharashtrians too. Maybe the author means that those whose mother-tongue is Marathi.

It tells you the stories of Ashwin Naik, DK Rao, Chhota Rajan, Santosh Shetty, Subhash Singh Thakur, Arun Gawli and many others. If you havce read the first one, you may skip the second one because it is repetitive in many chapters, just adding few details here and there. However, if you find yourself suddenly in midst of an obsession with the underworld stories, then pick this up too. You won’t be utterly dejected.

Author’s use of word “extremely” is too liberal to be taken seriously – a gangster is termed “extremely smart”, some other as “extremely dangerous”, someone else as “extremely something“. It seems these gangsters have appointed themselves as the highest-order humans in the author’s mind.

Buy it on Amazon.

 

Review: Guns & Thighs by Ram Gopal Varma

When I was in my pre-teen years, I happened to watch the movie Shiva on television. Completely unaware of the technicalities of movie-making then, I was struck by the suspense which the music and the scenes managed to created. Then came Rangeela and Daud, but before them came Raat – the movie which my fellow school friends had dubbed as a horror flick beyond comparison. I remember even my parents discussing the movie amongst themselves. I think RGV is one of the most original directors in Indian cinema, having the guts to go beyond the hackneyed plots and predictable cast. His Company still rules the roost when it comes to my all time favourite ones.

This book is his way of telling the world how he became a well-known director in the business of movies, having had no connections or background in the industry. He traces his childhood and engineering days, and the various student-wars he participated in, and skirmishes with the police force. His foray into movies became serious when he started a video-rental store in Hyderabad, with his family in strong opposition to this move. But persistence has a way of paying back – and it is only his dare-devilry which has given him the plaudits.

He doesn’t flinch from name-dropping throughout the pages, sometimes which is weird to read about when it comes to his fascination with Sridevi. His take on the nuances of story-telling and acting are valuable to any film-critic and new comers to the line.

Pick this up to read the mind of the uncrowned master of countless Bollywood cult films.

Buy on Amazon.

Review: Dongri to Dubai by Hussain Zaidi

After hearing about this book for years, I finally picked it up to hone my know-how about the Mumbai mafia. It packs up innumerable dons and their rise from nobodies to ganglords. Dawood Ibrahim, Karim Lala, Haji Mastan, Khalid Pehelwan, Ranbeer Likha, Saeed Batla, Rama Naik, Arun Gawli, Babu Reshim, Chhota Rajan, Chhota Shakeel, Bada Rajan, Abu Salem and many others are covered in this book.

For those who are unaware of the dons of Mumbai, this is a good introductory book. One gets to see how the dons created their own regions of dominance, with the police establishment caught sitting ducks, and then joining hands with them to get a pie of the riches made by the dons.

However, the annoying part is the “creative license” which the author has taken in sounding many skirmishes sensational. Details which are impossible to know, have been written about as if the author was personally witness to those events. Also, the author bends over backwards to create an aura of awe for the gangsters. Witness this – he writes of Dawood Ibrahim: “known for having one of the sharpest minds in the world”. Seriously? This is what the author has come to? Then again he goes gaga over Dawood: “Dawood Ibrahim is more cunning and smarter than most heads of state put together and has the business acumen of several Dhirubhai Ambanis rolled into one”. Such boot-licking by the author, and passed off by Roli Books, reeks of subservience of the lowest quality and the highest order.

Buy it for the rawness of the underworld Mumbai, and excuse the unpolished writing style and poor structure of the book.

But it from Amazon.

Review: The Emergency by Coomi Kapoor

Emergency was a period about which I had only heard of fleetingly in the media and when the parties opposed to the Congress party vilified Indira Gandhi and her cronies. However, Coomi Kapoor’s book explains in painstaking detail what happened in the June of 1975. Though what happened in June was planned much before that and happened with connivance of Indira Gandhi, S.S. Ray, R.K. Dhawan, and many others.

For someone who wants to know why Emergency was declared and what grave actions it led to in the period after that, this is a great book. The author has included her own experiences of that period, and she happens to be the sister-in-law of the current BJP leader Subramaniam Swamy. Her account of how Swamy kept dodging arrest, and disguised himself in various avatars is nothing less than a thriller.

Indira Gandhi’s son, Sanjay Gandhi, led by an insatiable hunger for power, led his own agenda. His sterilization program, the Maruti car project, and his never ending fights with other Congress made it difficult for Indira Gandhi to work towards her own Twenty-Point agenda.

Almost all of the major leaders of opposition parties were jailed, including JP, Morarji Desai, Atal Behari Vajpayee, George Fernandes, Gayatri Devi, the Scindia family, and many others. It was a truly black period for India.

Though the subtitle of the book mentions “a personal history”, not much personal history is disclosed in the book. We do get to know how the author, then with the Indian Express led by RN Goenka, her husband struggle through it. But not as much as one would desire. We get to know that her husband was jailed as he raised slogans which angered Ambika Soni. But what all did they go through through the entire period of Emergency is not written about.

Nonetheless a good read.

Pick it up from Amazon.

 

Review: Heartfelt by Bharathi Pradhan

A truly moving account of the life of Medha Gujral (or Medha Jalota) and her indomitable spirit to continue being happy despite her failing health. Medha was a niece of IK Gujral, a former Prime Minister of India, while Anup Jalota is a famous Indian bhajan singer. Anup had been divorced twice, and Medha was separated from Shekhar Kapoor. And it was when Anup wooed Medha with his charms that the two of them decided to get together and later got married.

However, soon afterwards, Medha falls ill due to a murmur in her heart, which she had since her childhood. The  dreams of the new couple and their families come down crashing as they rush her to U.S. for further treatment, and when in the Mayo Clinic a medical botch-up almost kills her. She recovers and returns to India after having a heart transplant, but some years down the line has issues with her kidneys. The Indian doctors are in a fix as they mull over a kidney transplant as they have never handled a multi-organ transplant case involving a heart transplant. Finding a kidney donor and then the donor being rejected in the U.S., and then coming to India and getting the kidney transplant takes a financial toll on them, but Anup is calm as ever and never gives up on hope.

The book is written with a deep affection towards Medha and her family. We get to know about her childhood in Delhi and her family, and how from a very young age she was different from her sisters. We delve deeper into the love lives of Anup and Medh before they got together.

The account of Medha struggling to be positive, evident from some of her interactions with her loved ones, and Anup trying to keep it afloat is touching to say the least.

Pick this up today at Amazon.

 

Review: A Feast of Vultures by Josy Joseph

 

For anyone who believes in the sanctity of democracy in India, and has cast votes to any of the political parties vying for attention, this timely book will shatter their faith and belief. It is not only a scathing attack on the way India functions, but a grimy account of the insider machinations of politicians, businessmen, and the ‘go-to men’.

You will come across R.K. Dhawan, the typist and secretary of Indira Gandhi, the Ambani family and their palatial home Antilia standing on a piece of land which was once a graveyard, Dawood Ibrahim and Naresh Goyal colluding together to kill Thakiyuddin of East-West airlines, Subroto Roy, Vijay Mallya, Ottavio Quattrocchi, and the many other big names who matter.

The author precisely decimates the outward aura of fair-game and healthy-competition which is projected after the clinching of successful deals.

A must read book for anyone who is interested in India. I can’t recommend it enough. And it is surely with great courage that the author has mentioned various high-profile names involved in abject corruption and backhanded dealings.

Buy it on Amazon.

Review: Karma Sutra by Rajendar Menen

 

Rajendar Menen’s Karma Sutra is an eye-opener to the world of prostitution and human-trafficking in Mumbai, though the same ‘rules’ would apply anywhere in India or Southeast Asia, and probably most regions of the country. He has worked and written about them for decades, and brings his on-the-ground experiences to the front in this book.

He tells you everything about how the industry works, who are the girls or women who are brought into this ‘profession’, what are their backgrounds, how much do they earn, what are their travails, their anxieties, their emotions, who are the people who visit them, where do they live, what do they eat, what is their religion, and what are their fears. He puts a face to the ‘business’, makes it human than just a machine-like ‘profession’.

But also cautions that it is not only the poor or middle-class who are into this, but also the much more richer ones. He gives a run-down on the different regions in Mumbai where the brothels are situated, and the various States from which the women hail.

Pick this book to peek into a world which you may have no idea of. But beware of bad idioms which are abundant in the book, like “she has had hormone injections and is now an Amazon with enormous assets and a smooth body”, “if a baby crawled around Colaba it would think it is as dangerous as its crib”, “the boys are runaways and haven’t been to school, but are now as canny as gazelles in the Masai Mara”, “Mumbai’s streets are perforated with the carcasses of young, tender lives”, “the rains had left the bowels of the city damp and wheezing like a chronic asthma”, “the road looked and smelt like it had been bathed in a venomous mix of new and old excreta, plastic and stale food marinated at great expense..(truncated)”.

So beyond these eerily odd-structured sentences, the book is an opening into a nether world.

Buy it on Amazon.

Review: Exile by Taslima Nasrin

 

This was my first book of Taslima Nasrin, though for long I wanted to read her books. She writes about her experiences being exiled from her much-loved country: India. Only later did I realize that this was her seventh autobiographical book.

In her previous books, she wrote about her relationships with various men. It not only brought great anguish to the men who were named, but even to so-called ‘leaders’ of Islam who thought that a woman was bringing disrepute to their religion.

She writes vividly on how each individual in her life, from her friends, relatives, to family and media, reacted to her banishment. How her literary counterparts distanced themselves from her and wrote scathing attacks on her character. That a woman could write so freely was looked-down upon.

The book makes for  great reading into understanding how the political system works in India, how they treated Taslima like a hot-potato, and what people do when faced with uncomfortable scenarios – just desert the one who is the source of it, rather than help. On the downside however, Taslima sees everyone with a ‘with-me / against-me’ lens. She doesn’t appreciate the troubles of the ones who helped her many times, but due to the practicalities of life, couldn’t help her always. If one didn’t call her during her crisis, you were against her and a coward to voice your opinion to protect her right to write. And after a time it becomes repetitive to the point of being worn-out – her repetitive assertions about being depressed, about being locked up for nothing, being a prisoner of her tormentors, and being forced to spend time away from her family, friends, well-wishers, and her cat.

Go pick it up today on Google Play.

Review: Bhujia Barons by Pavitra Kumar

I always wanted to read about the story of the brand Haldiram’s and there was no way I couldn’t have picked this book up. When I first saw a packet of bhujia in Mumbai, with “Haldiram Nagpur” written on it, I was taken aback – I always thought that Haldiram was from Bikaner. So I concluded that this Haldiram from Nagpur is definitely an impostor and trying to cash in on the popularity of the Bikaner one. Little did I know of sibling rivalry and the business of food back then.

As the author has summarily written, “Ganga Bhishen Agarwal, aka Haldiram began selling bhujia in 1941 in Bikaner and his products became popular by his nickname Haldiram, with most customers. In 1956, he formed a partnership firm with all his three sons, Moolchand, Rameshwarlal and Satyanarayan, trading under the name of Chandmal Ganga Bhishen. In 1955, Haldiram, along with Shiv Kishan and Rameshwarlal, went to Kolkata and within a few short years, quickly tasted success”. In 1968, “all of Haldiram’s three sons were settled, each managing a piece of the family’s business – Moolchand looking after the shop in Bikaner, Rameshwarlal set up with Haldiram Bhujiawala in Kolkata and Satyanarayan managing a tiny piece of the business in the name of Haldiram & Sons, which eventually became independent from the businesses in Bikaner and Kolkata”.  It was later Saraswati Devi who played a major role for the expansion in Nagpur.

As they say, family businesses have a great role in breaking up the families which created them, and the Haldiram family is no different. Siblings, and cousins, fighting amongst themselves and passing on the legacy to their children. The court cases, the heartbreaks, the jealousy – everything is there in this tangy mixture of money and riches.

However, I do wish the editing was better – the author keeps going forward and backward in the narration. With so many similar family names, it becomes confusing after a while and you start losing track of them. Also, a more detailed analysis of the finances of the the Haldiram’s could have been done to make this book more business-like, rather than a lighthearted read.

Review: Black Flags (The Rise of ISIS) by Joby Warrick

This is a must read book for anyone who is interested in knowing not just about what ISIS is and how it suddenly came out of nowhere to garner all the media attention it got, but also to understand the larger battles playing out in Syria, Iraq, Jordan and other West-Asian countries at the moment. It gives you a classic, detailed, in-the-moment account of bomb explosions, shoot outs, all-out grenade attacks, and army ambushes. Though it doesn’t match Mark Bowden’s suspenseful writing style.

Nonetheless, it charts the inception and growth, and probably the impending downfall of ISIS, through Zarqawi,  Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayyub al-Masri, and finally Baghdadi. It gives out gripping details of how Zarqawi went from a local thug to lead the formidable army of fighters. Though the author definitely is not free of hyperbole when he writes, just to mention one example, “Americans are naturally sympathetic toward those who seek to liberate their country from dictatorship…” (truncated). A reading of Noam Chomsky would suffice here to lay any misunderstandings here.

That this book won the Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction for 2016 is both disappointing and expected. Disappointing because it presents a one-sided view, obviously favoring U.S., and expected because of the media’s current glare towards Islamic ‘terrorism’ and anything related to it.

But having said that, go pick it up to increase your awareness of what is happening around in the world while you pass your time away in air-conditioned homes.

Review: William Morris by Fiona MacCarthy

A giant of a book, well written, with excessive details about the life of William Morris. The author has painstakingly researched about Morris’ life stages and has interspersed it with his own private and public writings. Such is the verse, that you can transported to the England of the nineteenth century. What Morris did in writing did not however match with what he did for living. His espousing of Communism, while being a man of business, did not make good bedfellows. However, the author brushes aside the shortcomings many a times as if it were nothing but a fleck on a sheet of purity, as if dust on a glass of shine, as if a crease on an ironed cloth.

A book which cannot be read just once. A book which must be picked up every few years, just to enjoy the prose of the author and the poetry of the subject.

The book is divided in chapters, with the focus being the places at which Morris spent that part of his life. His beginnings in rural England, to his journeys to France, Germany, Norway, Iceland, each chapter is an imprint of what Morris took from those places, and left behind as imprints. Another shortcoming of the book, however, is that we hardly get to know the family of William Morris. We don’t know what personalities his siblings had, what interactions they had with him on a weekly or monthly or even yearly basis. Seems as if William Morris had only friends and detractors in his life. His family seems like an aside to his life, at least that’s what the impression is in the book.