Nikhil aka Nik is attending his graduation ceremony at MIT USA and is looking ahead to a bright future with NASA when his close pal Sameer proposes a trip to war ridden Cambodia. Without much thought and after much persuasion the friends begin their randomly planned vacation only to be embroiled in the tensions of country reeling under revolution.

In a moment of selflessness Nik saves Sameer’s life only to be captured by the revolting group. Rest of the book is all about how he survives Genocide, becomes a Buddhist monk & then quits being one, saves a gangster, becomes his accountant, falls in love, gets entangled in mafia war, leaves everything to save his life, comes to the brink of becoming a software mogul only to leave everything to come back to India where a whole new life is waiting for him. And yes in the whole process he has lost his one arm though I don’t remember when & how.

The poor fellow has so much on his plate! He is an epitome of the Indian saying, “bhagwan jab deta hai to chappar phaad ke deta hai” in English, “when God gives you he decides to rip off the roof and bless you with everything”, which in the case of this book is a hell lot of bad & good times.

In this case our protagonist leads one of the most exciting lives. All that can happen happens to him and all that can not happen also happens to him. The author has used all bollywood tricks he had in his bag & borrowed some from all other bags as well! Our hero is a brave heart, a selfless soul & a winner in all circumstances.

You wanna call him Superhero??? Oh! I have no issues! But beware a movie might be made out the book and Nik might be rechristened as “Nik the Selfless Savior of the World”.

The book is a racy read but despite the turmoil’s/ escapades of Nik you don’t feel an iota of sympathy towards him. Why so? For an emotional connect with the hero/ characters there should be an amount of reality which is totally missing in the book.

Thrillers are meant to be page turners & are usually based in make belief world. Western authors specialize in writing them but they still retain certain things which are believable but when it comes to Indian authors the only inspiration they have is Bollywood and the end result is something which leaves you gawking with disbelief and the question, “who is the bigger fool here, the author or the reader?”

When I was narrating the story of the book with a colleague of mine her reaction after every twist in turn in Nik’s life was “what??” she still wonders how I managed to finish the book. I told her it was fun predicting the twist n turns. ;)

Harper Collins has released the book at 99/- bucks and if you buy online it is available at a much lower rate. They have also come up with an exceptional number of prints for the 1st run. I guess this is an attempt to attract readers with a low price.

I had hated “Keep off the Grass” from the same author and I feel I should have kept off this book as well. You might read it if you are craving for a mindless thriller but mind you, you are requested to leave logic & brain aside if you want to enjoy it. Otherwise I have warned you enough

And no questions like “who is Johnny if Nik is the name of the protagonists” would be entertained. Please don’t think I am being rude it’s just that even I am trying to know who is Johnny and how he went down or did he really go down???

Chuck it!!! There are better books around ;-)

Ratings?

Readability ***

Pace ***

Newness of the plot??? Ha ha ha ha!!!!

Overall 2.25 minus .25 :D

Author: Karan Bajaj
Price: Rs. 99/-
Publisher: Harper Collins

'Cultural feminism is thus the ideology of female nature or female essence re-appropriated by feminists themselves in an effort to revalidate undervalued female attributes' If you have been able to grasp what exactly did this statement mean, you may still wish to go through the written word below.

If not, then rest assured, Sex in Cinema is not really the book you would be overtly interested in reading. Now that's an irony because with a title like Sex in Cinema, the least you want is something to be presented in the form and manner that is easily comprehensible to a common man. No, one is not looking at any tantalizing text or a provocative read that would lead to some voyeuristic pleasure. There are number of books available on the shelves for that purpose and frankly, this is not the right forum to discuss that. However, when the cover page of a book reads - Sex in Cinema - A history of female sexuality in Indian Films - your expectations are different.

You want to be taken on a ride which you may actually have taken before but don't mind repeating it all over again to know things from someone else's perspective. However, what you are instead offered is a strong 350 pages write-up which is clearly a work of thesis for a very select and handful of readers than 'aam junta' which could possibly have read the book from entertainment purpose. And again, by entertainment, it is not the carnal pleasure I am referring to but some basic insight and fun that one has from knowing something related to cinema. This way, the book commits a faux pas of sorts at the very beginning because despite the tagline reading '....... in Indian Films', the references are all related to Bollywood. There is not a single movie from any other Indian language which is even touched upon, let aside being detailed, which entirely defeats the purpose of the tagline. The issue with the book is much bigger though. It eats up 101 pages (yes, you read it right) before it even begins to talk about films. Before that, all one gets to read is author Fareed Kazmi's knowledge of cinema and the statements (belonging to the kinds as mentioned at the very top of this review) page after page. Is there anything wrong in that? May not be, if one looks at it from the author's point of view, because he wanted to establish a base before he could start taking a reader through the movies that have been made since the 1950s.

However, before kick starting the decade wise journey, he alienates 99% of that segment of readers for whom a book reading is an entertaining exercise rather than an out and out educative trip. Due to this very reason, Sex in Cinema ironically turns out to be a reference material for someone who may be looking forward to gain a doctorate in cinema. Also, the usage of some heavy duty English and the sentence framing means that an average reader's (I am one of them) interest starts to diminish extremely fast. No wonder, even when Kazmi actually comes to the point and starts describing the 'female sexuality' from the 50s, there is just no patience left to know what exactly is in store. Still, one believes that a learned man like him (who is a Professor of Political Science) would have some valid points to make and hence gathers courage to flip through pages. What one gets to see though is theme by theme, scene by scene, dialogue by dialogue and expression by expression dissection of many a Bollywood flicks from the past. Awara, Shri 420, Satyam Shivam Sundaram, Hare Krishna Hare Raama, Bandini and many more flicks from the era gone by and picked as examples where Kazmi begins his dissection job.

No wonder, the text continues to be totally tiresome to read as the author first explains the background of the film, then the context of the scene, then the mental conflicts that a character may be having and finally the reason behind why a particular dialogue held so much importance so as to warrant such detailing. There are Hindi dialogues followed by English translation and then Kazmi's own take on the situation; something that ends up turning away the majority of readers. This is the reason why even as newer films like Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Hum Aapke Hain Kaun or Salaam Namaste are brought into reference, there isn't much patience left for the viewer to appreciate Kazmi's verdict behind a scene. Also, another notable factor about the book is that it just doesn't stick to it's theme of 'history of female sexuality'.

There are lot of other tangents around texts and subtexts of scenes that are taken. Perhaps they (indeed) had something to do with the core subject but even if that was the case, it can be expected to be grasped only by a student of literature or someone who is writing a paper in cinema. For a book that revels so much on detailing, one wonders how Fareed Kazmi would have reacted when he would have looked at his own introduction on the back cover of the book. After all, for someone who had painstakingly put together this book, the least recognition he could have expected was to be credited as a Professor from 'University of Allahabad' and not 'Allababad', as the cover suggests. Price: Rs. 395/= Rating: 2/5

This book topped my most awaited list of books for the simple reason that I had loved the last book from the author and have been an avid follower of her writing through her blog, needless to say but I love her style of writing. The book was grabbed as soon as my book store got it for me.

Piggies on the Railway is a chick-lit cum mystery cum detective novel and is the 1st in a series of detective novels. Kasthuri Kumar (Katie), an ex-IPS officer is trying to establish herself as a Private Investigator in Mumbai when she lands up with a high profile case. Kaustav Kapoor, Bollywood’s leading film producer contacts her to find the heroine of his movie who has suddenly gone missing.

Our leading lady tries to make some inroads in this case when she stumbles upon a corpse and thus begins the roller coaster ride called Piggies on the Railway. Katie has too much on her plate with too many a suspects & each of them having a strong enough motive, Tejas Deshpande (another PI) behind her trail, more corpses and some false alarms. Her fantasy about Kaustav Kapoor, her already married ex-boyfriend & the attraction she feels towards Tejas is only making the matters worse for her.

Where did Urvashi go?

Could it be her affair with Kaustav which brought this on her?

Or is it just a publicity stunt by the producers?

Read the book to know more....

The book has everything going for it BUT it failed to turn me on and I would largely blame the editing for it. For a who-dun-it the book runs too long and meanders here n there unnecessarily. The beginning where Katie is shown fantasizing about being a Page 3 Icon, wearing some glossy gowns et al looks unnecessary, forced and makes you think that there is a hangover of Becky Bloomwood lurking around. The worst thing is that this characterization i.e. of a wannabe film star is conveniently forgotten later, may be it would come in the later books of the series but here it is a total waste of space & words.

The other grouse that I had with the book is that it sticks to the myth that too much confusion & too many suspects make a good mystery. Unfortunately it leaves us with too many things on our plate and too many lose ends left lose. What pops out is a bollywood masala kind of book which has too many convenient twists & turns.

I remember when I was just few pages away from the end I thought “what’s the significance of the title." You need to read till the last few pages to know that!

What could have been an entertaining read remains an average read for me. Yes, I would agree that once you start reading this book you would want to finish it because it is difficult to leave an unfinished mystery but for me the whole journey to read the book should be a pleasure and sadly in this case it isn’t! I tried too hard to like the book but unfortunately I disappointed myself because the book disappointed me.

What is commendable about the book is an effort to create a series of books with a lady protagonist in center. This is something new and really contemporary :-)
Read it if you like a cocktail of chick-lit & murder mystery. An enjoyable read in parts but loses focus here & there! If only it was edited well & too much was not put into it. Despite my disappointment with the book I am looking ahead for the next book in the series.

My Rating : 3 stars!

Piggies on the Railway
Author: Smita Jain
Price: 295/-
Publisher: Westland

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Love, life & all that jazz is the story of five friends Tania, Sameer, Vikram, Naina & Tanveer. Set in Mumbai the book traces the journey of each of the characters.

Tania & Sameer are college sweethearts going strong. However their rock solid relationship faces major hiccups when Sameer decides to move abroad for higher studies. Their long distance relationship is under strain but will their love survive?

Vikram belongs to a very wealthy & affluent family and is a supportive boyfriend to the aspiring model Naina. Things however take a bad turn for their relationship when Naina achieves new heights in her career leaving Vikram insecure. Who wins in this battle of relationship where both of them are wrong & both of them are right too.

Tanveer belongs to an orthodox & poor Muslim family. For him his family & its responsibilities is the soul purpose of his living. He falls in love with Tanaz the daughter of his Parsi landlord. All hell breaks loose when he discloses his relationship to his parents. Will his love make him choose a path that he would have never dreamt of?

Add to these stories the pressures of career, friendships & family and you have Love, Life & all that jazz up for you.

Will these love stories bloom? You need to read the book to know more.

The book for me is a connotation of life of today’s youth, their aspirations & way of living. The characters are well sketched and the fast pace of the book keeps you glued in. There will surely be instances which each of us can relate to; be it the pains of long distance relationship of Sameer & Tania or the professional troubles of Tanveer.

The book is very contemporary. The other thing which I liked about the book was the positivity in it & the way it ends. In real life we might not necessarily have a happy ending but at least in books we love to see optimism, what say?

However story wise; the book doesn’t rise beyond a point because at places it is predictable as a typical bollywood potboiler. The other problem that I had with the book was the narrative. I don’t know why but at places I felt I was reading a blog.

Despite all its constraints this debut book makes for a good time pass read (I had finished it in two stretches). The book is no literary masterpiece but makes for a good read on a rainy day or during traveling.

My Rating 2.75/5

Author: Ahmed Faiyaz
Publisher: Sanbun
Price: Rs. 150/- (available for 99/- at India Plaza)

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