First of all let me apologise profusely to BLOGADDA for the delay in posting the review. As luck would have it, within a day of getting the book in my hands I got stuck with cases in the SICU. Infact it needed a sweet voice from Blogadda to remind me “When can we expect the review?”, that was when I didn’t even have time to breathe, now I finally do!
So lets talk about the book now. RIP or the so called Resurgent Indian Patriots Mukul Deva’s latest offering. I must admit that I haven’t read any of his books prior to this one & so I have no idea as to his genre of writing. The back of the book said that he’s a “literary Stormtrooper” so I guessed that he must be BIG within the writing circles. RIP is a book about how the frustrated citizens of India take it upon themselves to right the wrong , or rather ELIMINATE the wrong. If A WEDNESDAY was a movie where in the aam aadmi takes on the terrorists who are trying to rip our nation apart from the outside, RIP is a book where the aam aadmi takes on the corrupt netas of our country who are ruining our country from within.
So lets get into the heart of the story
The Characters –
Krishna Athwale,
Kashif Nadeem,
Kevinn David,
Kamlesh Saikia,
Kulwant Singh Bajwa,
Karan Singh
They are the 6 guys, 6 ex Para Commandos who have taken it upon themselves to rid the nation of the corrupt politicians. Not only are they extremely well trained officers, they are a bunch of closely knit family who are willing to give up their lives for each other as well as the Nation. Whether you call them the Heroes of the story is up to you. Not surprisingly they are called the K-team. A well knit team of family oriented guys who have had some personal loss or the other. Krishna is their leader. They are the ones who are trying to knock off the politicians & instil fear in the rest of them so that the word corruption becomes alien to them
To stop them there is Raghav Bhagath, also an ex Para Commando who is appointed by a group of ministers to find who the RIP are & terminate them & to make sure that the cops don’t catch them alive. He is the debonair officer who cant say NO to money. The reason which saw him get terminated from the force
Vinod Bedi is the good guy from the police department, the Government man who is trying to find the RIP & catch them alive.
Now that you know the characters, the story unfolds just like a hindi movie. A group of angry young men takeing on the system. The story begins with a bang literally. You’ve heard of simultaneous bomb blasts, this story begins something like that, in 3 different cities though I wouldn’t want to give the plot away. The 6 guys are hell bent on getting the nation buried with corruption back on track & how do they do it? Not hunger strikes, candle marches…No no that is only in real life. Here they decide to get rid politicians themselves! Once they begin their strikes, they manage to instil fear in their hearts. The story is filled with real life events with a twist. Those who are up to date with their current events will love the way,the author has incorporated various scams & controversies into the story be it Bofors scam, fodders scam, the site allotment for Kargil martyrs. A No One Killed Jessica incident, hijacking of an Indian aircraft have all been included. To the extent that a recent hunger strike by a Gandhian too has been elaborately depicted. Forget the incidents, even the names of the politicians have been humorously twisted & put so that you can identify them without the author being taken to court for defamation. So if the MADAM guiding the PM is Sheila, the CM of Bihar is Lalit Yadav involved in fodder scam & Karunakaran is a devious CM from down south.
All in all I found the story a typical Bollywood style movie.And just like how you do for most of the the Bollywood movies, leave your brains at home & read this story. Infact I can bet on anything that this will be made in to a movie in the next 2 years. If you take this book too seriously you will begin to question the plot of citizens killing politicians. Is that legal, how much ever corrupt a politician or anyone is, is it right to just pick up a gun & start shooting them a.l.a Rang De Basanti? Tomorrow a student may not like his teacher, a son might have an issue with his father…So do they all pick up their guns? So don’t read this book too seriously. Read it for fun. If you expect to get inspired after reading the book you will be disappointed, its not going to awaken the Indian in you unlike A WEDNESDAY. It’s a nice fast paced coffee table book
This review is a part of BlogAddas BOOK REVIEWS initiative
