So whats the story about?Its a story of an ordinary man who possesses extraordinary powers.The story revolves around Arnab Bannerjee; a shy 25 year old assistant librarian. He is the typical shy,geeky extremely self-conscious man living in Delhi.His only companions are books and he is happy to have a job which involves handling them! He leads a very unexciting life until one day he gets thrashed during a bank robbery and suddenly gets superhuman powers. At first he himself does not believe it and treats it as a one off but some incidents make him believe that indeed he possesses superpowers.
Arnab uses his powers for the good of mankind and foils criminal activities by eve teasers, highway robbers, corrupt policemen, and dirty politicians.the biggest challenge turns out to be to stop a deadly terrorist attack on Delhi but for him to achieve that he is forced to join hands with a corrupt politician. The dilemma on the extent to which a person can sacrifice on his ideals is highlighted in Arnab’s plight.What follows is anyone's guess!
What's interesting about the book is the Indian take on the superhero genre which is refreshingly different from the usual stories. The book has lots of action and lots of masala for it to be a good racy read but ...
What obviously doesn't work for the book are too many similarities with the original DC Comic heroes and the typical Good vs Evil tug of war!The book sadly ends up being a poor desi version of the original.
The author Mainak Dhar is an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad.He has authored seven books and this is his eighth.Mainak currently works with P&G and lives in Bangkok with his wife &son.
Sounds very interesting that book !!
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Dear Priyanka,
ReplyDeleteGlad that you got a chance to read Herogiri and thank you for the review. Am happy that you found several things to like about the book. Also for the things you didn't like quite as much- thanks for the candid review and feedback- that's the only way an author can improve.
cheers
Mainak
@Anya-Its a good read as it is refreshingly different from the usual subjects that Indian authors tackle!
ReplyDelete@Mainak-Thank you so much for your feedback too with regards to the book review.Hope to see many more books authored by you!
Priyanka et al,
ReplyDeleteAs someone who has actually read the book (unlike Mr 'booklover' who dispenses his criticisms and witticisms via banal one liners) I must say I take exception to some portions of your review- specifically dismissing this book as a `poor desi version'. Perhaps because of our colonial history, its hip to ape what the white man does unquestioningly and drag down what the brown man tries as a faux copy of the west. If Herogiri is a poor copy of the west, do you consider Harry Potter as a poor copy of LOTR or LOTR itself as a poor copy of the Ramayana, Mahabharata and Greek epics? The tragedy of our so called educated classes today is that pretentious trip trotted out by writers aimed at the western audience is embraced as manna while work aimed at the desi audience is pulled down and denigrated. Herogiri is published by Random House, who also published Quarantine by Rahul Mehta. The latter, a book about gay NRIs, would hardly resonate with most of us straight, India-bound desis, but is acclaimed, simply because we think the white man would like it. Herogiri, starting with the title, down to the story, is unabashedly a desi story for Indians- but you dismiss it as a `poor desi cousin' instead of applauding it as a brave attempt to cock a snook at the prentension that passes as Indian literature today.
Dear readers,
If you love a good story and don't care for what western audiences would like (and in fact thrill at the fact that a writer finally does not care what they like but dares to write a great thriller for desis)- read Herogiri!
Thanks Ashish for your feedback.I appreciate your points.I hope you read this part as well
ReplyDelete'What's interesting about the book is the Indian take on the superhero genre which is refreshingly different from the usual stories. The book has lots of action and lots of masala for it to be a good racy read but ...'
Also this
'@Anya-Its a good read as it is refreshingly different from the usual subjects that Indian authors tackle!'
If you do read our blog we can be accused of anything but comparing our Indian writers with the non-Indian writers.Since this book is in the superhero genre a comparison with the west is sadly inevitable.
The review was definitely not meant for western audience but for our Indian readers .Kudos to Random House for introducing different genres of books to Indian readers.
Although I haven't read the book, it is indeed refreshing to have an author telling stories for an audience outside of the west. The world is a big place and stories/images of non-whites is an important statement to make in all genres of everything.
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