I recently read Aditya Sudarshan’s second book Show me a Hero, a story about youth, growing up and standing up for their beliefs. A good effort but not an extraordinary story to keep it interesting enough for the reader. I found the plot good but the characters very disconnected.
The story is of how a fresh out of college youth Prashant Padmanabhan wants to make a movie about his cricketing icon Ali Khan. He wants to clear the controversy surrounding Ali’s retirement from cricket through his movie. Prashant, thanks to his sheer persistence, manages to convince Khan to be a part of the project. Everything seems to be falling in place for Prashant in terms of the movie; he also gets his friend Vaibhav to help him out with the project. Things start going awry as soon as they start filming with Prashant receiving death threats for supporting Ali, also court summons from religious groups that do not want their community portrayed in a bad light. It gets worse when Prashant is found dead in his home.
It is first assumed that it was an accident but it is soon established that he was murdered. So the book soon turns into a whodunit when Vaibhav and Animesh, his roommate, try to get to the bottom of Prashant’s death. That is when they discover not everything is as simple and not everyone is as they seem, bringing to the fore the complexities of human mind.
Interesting plot but seems to go haywire at times. At times I just skipped pages to know who could have done this to Prashant and why but midway it was pretty clear and evident who the murderer is. The book does try to address issues that young adults are facing, the challenges of urban living. Just wish it could be a more gripping and interesting read.
About the Author:
Aditya Sudarshan is a fiction writer. He is the author of a novel, A Nice Quiet Holiday, a play, Sensible People, and several short stories and television scripts. He also writes literary criticism for The Hindu Literary Review and other publications.
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