Book Review #49: Half Girlfriend By Chetan Bhagat

Half Girlfriend (Pic Courtesy: Internet)

Probably one of the dullest books I’ve read in recent times. This book of Chetan Bhagat’s came after a long gap of not so success Revolution 2020. Everybody said it right; Bhagat has after all come out as a Bollywood writer and nothing else. What if I told you this book “Half Girlfriend” doesn’t even comparable to his earlier novels. It is too predictable and most of the story is either copied from his predecessors or from earlier Hindi movies.

What was more astonishing is he dared to publish this book, though he knew that it is a mere movie script!! There is nothing that one can expect while reading a book, leave alone term it as a novel, sorry, a romantic novel! There are absolutely no surprises, no aha moments or anything of that sort. It’s a mere story of 2 college kids, a Bihari boy and a Delhi girl. And, there is regular love story, college classes, placements, love story, sex, break ups, family problems, etc… these things you might have already read in his previous 2 States, 3 Mistakes of My Life, Five Point Someone, etc…

The plot of the novel is as dry as Sahara desert. A Bihari boy or rather a Bihari prince Madhav Jha who is a state level basketball player gets admission in one of the high profile institute in Delhi, St. Stephen’s through sports quota and took up sociology as his major. His only drawback is he can’t speak the English like the city dwellers. During the admission day he comes across a beautiful girl Riya Somani who is also a basketball player that joined St. Stephen’s for English Honors degree.  There you go, bingo!! He instantly connects with this girl and within next 25 pages of the book; he befriends Riya and pretends as Sharukh Khan. Riya (read as Kajol) is not a serious student; rather, she wants to be just friends with Madhav.

As usual book goes into the 2 States mode instantly, Madhav Jha who is now desperate enough to fall in love with Riya tries all his might to get this chic (Riya). But every time he comes up with a brilliant idea, this will get snubbed by Riya. Later Riya clarifies Madhav that, she is just friends with him and pronounces herself as his HALF-GIRLFRIEND. Whoa!!(Slow claps).

Later part of the novel becomes too predictable. One unfortunate incident makes our Sharukh and Kajol gets separated. One and half years later, she comes to college just to drop out. She invites Madhav to her wedding. That’s it. One part of the story ends here. 2^nd part is a regular movie tamasha; Hero Madhav who is now broken out of his love, concentrates more on his career. He studies like there is no tomorrow. He goes to his placements interview and declines a lucrative HSBC offer citing the reason ‘he wants to go back to Bihar and take over the school that his mother runs and build this school as one of the best schools in Bihar’.

Here, Bhagat plays an 80’s movie director role. Madhav, who is the head of his school, gets an appointment with Bill Gates through Gates-Melinda foundation and gets a grant for his school. During one of these meetings in a hotel, he accidently (really??) meets Riya and they decide to reconcile again. She describes all her unfortunate incidents after college, her divorce with her husband, etc… Madhav also explain everything about his life after college. He takes Riya to his home to meet his mother. There is a slight twist here, like all other regular movies, this should be the end. But, here Bhagat plays an “I am smarter than you” type. Madhav’s mother learns that Riya a divorcee and she scolds Riya and warns her to stay out of Madhav’s life. OMG, What a pity??

So, Riya decides to move out of Madhav’s life for 2^nd time. She cooks up a drama that she is suffering from cancer. She leaves a note to Madhav and leaves India. But, our Sharukh is not a quitter (Yeah!!). He starts his hunt for his Kajol despite the protest from his mother. He goes to New York as an UN delegate and stays at his friend’s house for about 3 months. He knew that, Riya wanted to be a singer and she informed him in her college days that, her ambition in life is to play music at a Bar in New York (Duh!!). Rest of the story is kind of guesswork. Bhagat again plays “I am cooler than you” type. Till last day of Madhav’s stay in US, he is unable to locate Riya. On last day, he visits a bar where she is performing and they see each other and then they lived happily ever after.

Conclusion:

First time Chetan Bhagat readers finds this book with full of surprises. Whereas, his regular readers finds this as a same stuff packaged in a new book. Overall, can be read onetime and can forget that instant.   

My Rating:

2.5/5

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Book Review #5 - Dongri to Dubai - S. Hussain Zaidi

Dongri to Dubai

This one book where you never want to put down at any cost. Written with a great eloquency with a massive amount of research. And I read it completely in one sitting throughout a day.

The author S. Hussain Zaidi a veteran crime reporter and a journalist, and being mentored by the famour crime journalist Jyotirmoy_Dey who had covered Mumbai Mafia for more than 2 decades and conducted what is known to be the last interview of the Mumabi Underworld Don and now a fugitive Dawood Ibrahim.

Zaidi's book, Dongri to Dubai, presents an authentic and exemplifying account of the history of Mumbai Mafia spanning for more than 60 years from the post independent days of 1950's till 2000's, in a staggering 60 chapters and 300 odd pages.

Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar, the world's most wanted man, is a son of a Mumbai police personnel Ibrahim Kaskar who was known for his integrity and loyalty towards country and he has served honestly throughout his entire tenure as a policemen.

If you hog into internet and search for this man, Dawood Ibrahim, you will find a plethora of information on this underworld don. But you hardly get a complete detailed picture of this man and his stories. This is the book that fills that gap, Dongri to Dubai. Apart from this book, the author Hussain Zaidi has written a number of other books on the same genre, mainly, Black Friday, Mafia Queens of Mumbai, Headley and I and the latest one Byculla to Bangkok.

The book begins with a period of 1950's to 60 - the early days of Mumbai Mafia and gradually moves on to the era of smugglers like Haji Mastan, Vardarajan Mudaliar (VARDA Bhai) and the meance of PATHAN gang who are migrated from Afghanistan and Peshawar post independence. And also the short history of dreadful gangster Manya Surve. It gained power and cult between the 3 people 2 Tamilians and 1 PATHAN. It was Haji Mastan's connections, Varda's shrewedness and Karim Lala's muscle power that made mumbai underworld what it is today. Haji Mastan and Varadarajan Mudliar are from Tamil Nadu whereas Karim Lala is from Peshawar who moved to Bombay in 1930's. While Mastan worked as coolie Mazagoan docks to make ends meet and Varda tried to make a living by working as a porter at the landmark of victoria terminus. Karim Lala established a gambling den and later moved on to money laundering. The stepped up into the world of crime by smuggling goods across the Bombay port's, extortion, producing country liquor, which was banned at that time.

Dawood:
Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar, born as a second son to the respectable police constable, who entered into the world of Bombay crime in late 1970's. The very first crime that dawood committed was a robbery. Later he was also involved in Money Extortions and thefts across Bombay ports. Later he was elevated as a Bombay Don when Bombay police used him as a PAWN, in the fight against the PATHAN gang and thus started his journey towards becoming the number one don in Mumbai.

By late 1970's, Dawood along with his brother Sabir, Anees and his manager Khalid ventured into smuggling market in the middle eastern countries, especially Dubai, for Radio Transistors, Watches and later to Golds. He was continuing his dream run, until his brother Sabir was killed by Pathan gang in a petrol bunk, shot at point blank range. This incident has led into the events, that what we can call as a gang war. Dawood partnerships with Bada Rajan and Chota Rajan and an erruption of gang war resulted in the deaths of Pathan Amir, Bada Rajan, Abdul Kunju, Samad Khan, etc.. This event leads Dawood to escape from Bombay in 1986 and he seeks an asylum in Dubai.

In Dubai, Dawood built an empire itself with the help of his close aides, mainly Chota Rajan and Chota Shakeel. It is where the term D-Company came into existence. From there, Dawood controlled the Bombay Mafia. Though Dawood migrated to Dubai, the gang wars in Bombay was never ceased to stop. It was continued with lot of killings and personal vengence. The worst happened for Dawood was the Mumbai Serial Blasts in 1993. Dawood's name was the first name that came to the picture of Bomaby Police, and he was the one who masterminded it according to the police sources. This was followed by the fallout of friendship with Chotta Rajan who surrendered to Bombay Police, but never agreed to return to India, without the promise of a proper trial of him in court. Later, Chotta Rajan migrated to many places including Malaysia, Europe and Thialand.

During these times, entry of Abu Salem into D-Company was a much talked issue. Abu Salem involvement in Bollywood film making made much worse for the then top actors. Almost every actor in Bollywood was being interrogated about Abu Salem links with the movie industry. There was also few incidents like attack on Hrithik Roshan's father Rakesh Roshan. One more incident being, the movie "Chori Chori Chupke Chupke" starring Salman Khan, Preity Zinta, etc.. being funded by Mumbai Underworld people, mainly Abu Salem. Later police brought a stay on that movie from getting released into theatres. Then Abu Salem was arrested along with his Girl Friend Monica Bedi, etc.. This book leaves no leads behind. Author has classified everything according to the incidents in chronological order.

All these incidents leading the then Indian government pressurizing Dubai government for the handover of Dawood to India. This led Dawood to forcefully seek asylum in Pakistan. That is his current headquarteres of D-Company according to this book.

The next few incidents after Dawood relocated to Pakistan. Getting married his daughter to Pakistan's ex cricketer Javed Miandad's Son. The lavish party that he threw on this occasion. And, some of the popular Bollywood faces attending this party, etc..

Overall, Zaidi's cinematic narration and numerous Hindi Dailogues in this book which could have done without makes it an apt choice for movie adoptions. Without much surprise, parts of this book has already been made into movies. Especially, Shootout at Wadala, Shootout at Lokhandwala, D-Day, etc..

Although this book promises the readers give them insights into the origins of Mumbai Underworld, it progresses to become a lousy attempt of the writer to paint a humble human face of Dawood portraying him as a mere pawn which used him at large. And, this leaves the reader with an impression that, Dawood might be an innocent and not a criminal, who just stood there gazing at the incidents happen through his name.

However, this book is still recommended for anyone, who wants to understand the evolution of Bombay underworld and in general Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar.

My Rating: 4/5