You know I always thought Indian writers couldn’t write thriller fiction. They could do some good mythology based stuff, some slice of life prose, a few love stories and other stuff like that. For proper thriller fiction you had to get hold of a Dan Brown, Sidney Sheldon and other similar fellows. I always figured the Indian guys didn’t have it in them.
Till a few weeks back. When I read one particular book which knocked my socks off.
The way I got hold of the book was purely by accident. And the way I read it was even more of an accident. It was my birthday and my friend Anjan who always gives me the worst gifts possible (once he gave me a Japanese paper fan, another year a t-shirt that was 2 sizes too big!). Well this year he rushed in late as usual and handed me a hastily wrapped packet. ‘I know you love thrillers buddy, this is for you.’ Later at night when I unwrapped it I was aghast, it was called Taking the Taj by some guy called Shivjeet Kullar whom they claimed was ‘at last a genuine Indian Thriller Writer!’ The cheek of it I thought to myself, and decided to gift it away at the first available opportunity.
And then what happened? The lights went off for three hours. With no comp, and no internet I picked up the book curiously and looked at it under the emergency tube light. They said this guy Kullar was an ad guy who had won hundreds of awards and had written a column in the Times of India. Well, he couldn’t be too bad I thought to myself and read on.
This is what the back jacket said:
‘As a nation heads towards a vortex of violence and destruction, the whole world watches in horror.’
Taking the Taj is a fast paced page turner where seven seasoned terrorists take international hostages in the TajMahal. The jewel of Mughal art and architecture and the cynosure of the world of romance is an awe inspiring presence in the book. On a hot summer day, in the middle of the afternoon, a group of terrorists walks in, shoots down a few security guards and takes over the TajMahal. They wire it to explode and take hostage eleven of the world’s top CEO’s- who are visiting the Taj- representing companies with a combined net worth of over 300 billion dollars. Their demand- the release of one of the world’s top terrorists scheduled to be hanged the day after.
Gritty and intense, this novel is a nail biting, adrenaline pumping account of what happens over the next twenty four hours. Inside the Taj a young historian races to uncover a dramatic secret. It is a four hundred year old secret as surprising as it is shocking and capable of changing the way we look at The Taj- forever! Not bad I thought to myself. As I looked around the electricity was still off so I decided to read the first few pages. Guess what happened next? When the power came back on a few hours later I was almost on page 180. I did a quick calculation…another 177 pages to go. So I had a quick shower,put on the AC and kept reading. The sun was almost coming up when I finished the book. Wow! Who the hell are you Mr. Shivjeet Kullar? And how did you think of such an outrageous plot. Aren’t you scared that some terrorist group will read your book and actually carry out the mission? Will you have to go to jail then?
Ok, ok I know this is supposed to be a book review so let me get a little professional. First let me tell you the things that I didn’t like about this book.
There are one and a half things a) I thought the book was too short, it licks along at such a nice page it would have been nice if it had been a little longer. And the half thing) there are perhaps too many characters; one or two less may have simplified things.
Till a few weeks back. When I read one particular book which knocked my socks off.
The way I got hold of the book was purely by accident. And the way I read it was even more of an accident. It was my birthday and my friend Anjan who always gives me the worst gifts possible (once he gave me a Japanese paper fan, another year a t-shirt that was 2 sizes too big!). Well this year he rushed in late as usual and handed me a hastily wrapped packet. ‘I know you love thrillers buddy, this is for you.’ Later at night when I unwrapped it I was aghast, it was called Taking the Taj by some guy called Shivjeet Kullar whom they claimed was ‘at last a genuine Indian Thriller Writer!’ The cheek of it I thought to myself, and decided to gift it away at the first available opportunity.
And then what happened? The lights went off for three hours. With no comp, and no internet I picked up the book curiously and looked at it under the emergency tube light. They said this guy Kullar was an ad guy who had won hundreds of awards and had written a column in the Times of India. Well, he couldn’t be too bad I thought to myself and read on.
This is what the back jacket said:
‘As a nation heads towards a vortex of violence and destruction, the whole world watches in horror.’
Taking the Taj is a fast paced page turner where seven seasoned terrorists take international hostages in the TajMahal. The jewel of Mughal art and architecture and the cynosure of the world of romance is an awe inspiring presence in the book. On a hot summer day, in the middle of the afternoon, a group of terrorists walks in, shoots down a few security guards and takes over the TajMahal. They wire it to explode and take hostage eleven of the world’s top CEO’s- who are visiting the Taj- representing companies with a combined net worth of over 300 billion dollars. Their demand- the release of one of the world’s top terrorists scheduled to be hanged the day after.
Gritty and intense, this novel is a nail biting, adrenaline pumping account of what happens over the next twenty four hours. Inside the Taj a young historian races to uncover a dramatic secret. It is a four hundred year old secret as surprising as it is shocking and capable of changing the way we look at The Taj- forever! Not bad I thought to myself. As I looked around the electricity was still off so I decided to read the first few pages. Guess what happened next? When the power came back on a few hours later I was almost on page 180. I did a quick calculation…another 177 pages to go. So I had a quick shower,put on the AC and kept reading. The sun was almost coming up when I finished the book. Wow! Who the hell are you Mr. Shivjeet Kullar? And how did you think of such an outrageous plot. Aren’t you scared that some terrorist group will read your book and actually carry out the mission? Will you have to go to jail then?
Ok, ok I know this is supposed to be a book review so let me get a little professional. First let me tell you the things that I didn’t like about this book.
There are one and a half things a) I thought the book was too short, it licks along at such a nice page it would have been nice if it had been a little longer. And the half thing) there are perhaps too many characters; one or two less may have simplified things.
Now for the things I liked and there are many of them
1) I
liked the way this guy writes, short terse sentences and telegraph like flow.
You can make out this is an ad writer, those guys are really miserly with
words, and that helps add to the tension.
2) I like the way the story is
constructed, it moves from hour to hour, minute to minute and sometimes second
to second…almost like watching a movie rather than reading a book.
3) I like
the amazing vignettes of characterization. From a communalist murderer to a
farmer about to commit suicide with his family the author does an amazing job
of bringing characters to life and you can make out that he is a keen observer
of people.
4) So even though there are many characters that’s only half a
problem because one is more interesting than the next. There are no stereotypes
here, you understand the motives of everyone, including the terrorist.
5) The attention
to detail is fantastic, I don’t know whether all his details about the Taj are
accurate or not, but your mind boggles with the authority and confidence with
which he writes.
6) I got goose bumps with the way he shifts from present day
to Shah Jahan’s time, it all just seems so natural and authentic. And finally
7)
I like the story and the plot. Even though it is outrageous it seems so simple
and believable and I sincerely hope that someone in the home ministry reads the
book and beefs up the security at the Taj Mahal.
There’s a bit of everything in this book drama, tension,
violence, sex, a touch of romance, surprise, courage – you name it it’s there.
