Scandal Point by Fahad Samar

"Scandal Point" debut novel by Fahad Samar. This book is published by HarperCollins publishers India in 2013 and has 289 pages. Fahad is a filmmaker. He has directed TV shows like BPL Oye! , Superhit Muqabla and The Poppudam Show.

Kapil Kumar, is a yesteryear superstar, well known for his brash language, his penchant for bedding his female co-stars and his ego. He decides to launch his handsome and attractive son, Ricky Kumar, as a hero in Bollywood film that he will right, produce and direct. It would be a remake of his super hit film. Gautam Goyal, is a handsome, arrogant and drug addict son of billionaire NRI Mr. Goyal, who owns a chain of Indian restaurants. He comes to Mumbai for detoxification. Paths of Ricky and Gautam cross. Not once, not twice but many times.

Ricky hates Gautam. Why? What happens to the movie? What about rehabilitation? Who are Sheena and Meneka? How does Bollywood, business and politics interact? Where will the story go?

This is a tale of film industry. An industry that is vengeful, slutty, partial, ruthless and extravagant. All the masala ingredients are present in this book. It has affairs, sex, oneupmanship, corruption, film making, hidden agenda, sibling rivalry, drug scandal and revenge. It is a web of deceit, lies, lack of trust and scandals. All the characters are entangled in this web.

The story is scattered all over the place. Although it has all the ingredients what is missing is order. It appears that everything is thrown in together without the unified and homogeneous effect. Author has tried to put too many spices in the pot pourri hoping that the recipe will come out trumps, but none of the spices has had the desired effect resulting in a confused taste. In the end Fahad outdid himself in making it unbelievably scandalous in an attempt to bring the story to conclusion and close the loop.

Fahad should have chosen a smaller canvas to make the novel more effective. He knows how to  captivate audience should have kept it up through out the book. Many incidents are taken from real life of the film personalities and knowledgeable readers can recognize the origin.

It is more of a nude rendition of film industry than a tasteful and artistic portrait. What is the significance of 'Scandal Point'? It's only the name of a pub where the story starts. More appropriate name for the book would have been 'Scandal'.

An OK book. Read if scandals interest you.

Sethji by Sjobha De

"Sethji", a political thriller, by Shobha De.

Sethji is a politician from Uttar Pradesh. He doesn't follow any rules, has no principals, is expert in managing things, works only for himself and is only interested in power. In short he is a typical politician and minister at center, who heads a small party and has become very important in the days of coalition politics.

He has two useless sons and a beautiful, sexy and capable daughter-in-law, Amrita, with whom he has illicit affair. Amrita is a intelligent, shrewd and cool headed women. Even Sethji can not fathom her completely.

Sethji has faced many problems and tricky situations in his life and has come out unscathed with the help of his wits, intelligence and his uncanny ability of exploiting the situation. Now Sethji is in a trouble of his life. Moreover he is incapacitated. The only person who can get him and his family out is Amrita with the help of a mysterious person MK.

Will Sethji come out winner? What does Amrita want? Can she turn on her magic? How will it end? The story takes place in Mumbai and Delhi.

Shobha's writing style is direct. She does not waste time in preamble and gets to the point. Politics today runs on flesh, money and information; and this is the theme of this book. She has portrayed the picture of today's politics brashly. It's a gloomy picture.

The description of various amorous encounters in the book is a bit crude and lacks artistic value or class.

The plot is good. A number of characters are based on real life politicians and smart readers can recognize which ones. The story goes slightly out of control when it moves to Mumbai, but keeps you just interested enough not to lose interest. The end however was bit of an anti climax.

An OK read.