Indian curry

Pop fiction | Harish Sharma, Mainak Dhar

So I decided to read work by authors with Indian names. Nah, just happened that way; twasn't planned.

Prankzz by Harish Sharma [warning: some spoilers up to mid book, not spoiling the end] is a story about six medical students in the country's premier medical college (a fictional college in Bengaluru), put together in a study group. Three 'girls' and three 'boys', who proceed to play increasingly involved and dangerous pranks on each other. The six break up into two groups, the girls and one boy on one side, and two boys on the other. As the pranks get more elaborate, they also have a stronger impact on the victims. Six years on, and the girls' group is in a bad shape, but struggling to cope—with nightmares, alchoholism, a destroyed career and more. And then the boys' group pulls off the ultimate prank, with devastating consequences.

The characters are not empathic. The leader of the girls is arrogant and bears grudges. The boys group bears grudges for even longer, and even deeper. The alchoholic is pathetic. The boy in the girls group is easily led around, though turning out to be the most sensible of them all in the end, still, he lets the reader down by not living up to these very expectations. Only one person in the group is not burned out by envy or hate, and she is the one who loses her career due to injury, and even she succumbs to negativity before the end.

And yet, at the end, Harish Sharma manages to make you care about them, and even like them, and cheer them on. He plays a prank on you, after all, and you realise that a movie scriptwriter has many tricks to play.

Readable at ₹ 250 (published by Rupa). But I'm not going to go looking out for more books by Harish Sharma. Three stars.

Herogiri by Mainak Dhar is a fast little book about an ordinary person (you can't get more ordinary than a wimpy librarian with thick specs) suddenly developing super powers. A word about the suffix 'giri' after 'Hero' in the title. It's a Hindi construct, and I thought I knew exactly what it meant and implied till I sat down to write this explanation for non-Hindi speakers. It's a bit like 'ism' as a suffix, but it has slightly different connotations. Gandhism translates as Gandhivadi; 'Gandhigiri' is more frivolous and superficial, insincere and self-serving almost. Another word, 'goondagiri', where 'goonda' is hooligan, also brings out the superficial and negative connotation. It's a bit pejorative, a bit negative, a bit superficial, and a bit not-taken-seriously. Herogiri would thus mean doing a hero part, not quite being a hero. And yet the nuance is a bit more subtle than that. Sigh.

Anyway, to come back to the story, we have a love interest, a crime fighter, a crooked politician, a business tycoon that I suspect is modelled on Vijay Mallya (hey, it could be me, not Mainak Dhar) who wants to buy our hero, assorted villains who get their just desserts, cricket, a kid (cameo role), a supportive father figure, and terrorists. What would a modern story be without terrorists?

A light and easy read, with at most 6 pages of unnecessary exposition in all. And, bonus, with a place setting I know (Delhi/Gurgaon). The characters are much more believable than in Prankzz; I even think I've met some of these archetypes. I will certainly look for more books by this IIM graduate (what's with IIT and IIM grads these days that they all want to write a book?). At ₹ 199 (published by Random House), it's a steal. Five stars.