Review: Khullam Khulla: Rishi Kapoor Uncensored

Khullam Khulla: Rishi Kapoor Uncensored by Rishi Kapoor
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Khullam Khulla is the story of Rishi Kapoor. And it is fairly frank as the title suggests.

Rishi Kapoor admits he had an advantage – being from a film family, and the great Raj Kapoor’s son. There are warm accounts of the family and their relations making for very good reading.
After a role as a teenager in Mera Naam Joker, which did not do too well, Rishi was launched as a lover boy hero in Bobby. Bobby was a major hit – thanks to impressive performances by both Rishi and Dimple. Rishi then recounts the ups and downs, including a period shortly after his marriage when his films were not doing well, and he goes into depression suffering a crisis of confidence.

He makes his mark in love stories over time, and now in the second phase of his acting career has a wider variety of roles to choose from (such as in Agneepath, Kapoor & Sons and others). There is a bold revelation that he paid money to influence an award for Bobby, which quite possibly also played a role in his early frosty relation with Amitabh Bachchan.

While there is a lot of interesting material, the book is not that well organized – shuffling from this to that with a context. There are a lot of references to drinking – almost as if that is the primary bonding factor among family and friends! Neetu Singh’s afterword is actually pretty well written.

My rating: 3.25 / 5


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Review: Karna's Wife: The Outcast's Queen

Karna's Wife: The Outcast's Queen by Kavita Kané
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have been wanting to read Kavita Kane's books since long, and finally have started with Karna's Wife. Karna’s Wife represents imaginative Indian historical fiction writing.

Mahabharata is an epic of immense complexity. While the summary rendering is that of the fight of good vs bad/evil, the situations and moral dilemmas which the characters face is extremely complex. A situation and dilemma which the Mahabharata raises, has found no easy solutions even today - what if those at the highest seats of power do not have the right values / behaviour and lead the entire kingdom to disaster (as Duryodhana / Shakuni and the Kauravas did), dragging many upright and moral citizens (such as Dronacharya, Bhishma, Karna and others) in the flow.

Karna is a character who is one of the most fascinating in the epic. He fights an uphill battle right from birth – is given away and brought up by poor parents (his father being a charioteer) at a time when your parental heritage mattered a lot. He is up against a lot – his upbringing, devious friends and being bound by loyalty, blunders due to feeling mistreated since long, others seeking to disarm him by taking advantage of his generosity…..

The story is told from the eyes of Uruvi, who is Karna’s second wife. This is a character you do not encounter in mainstream narration of the Mahabharata. Though of royal heritage and also close to the Pandavas, she chooses to marry Karna – impressed by his personality and skills. This is not exactly an ideal situation – being a second wife (Karna’s first wife being Vrushali), and more importantly a man scorned as one not worthy of intermingling in the highest circles. While she loves him deeply, she watches helplessly as she sees their life entering turbulent times. Especially after Karna’s taunts Draupadi leading to Duhasana’s attempt to disrobe her. Uruvi is wild with Karna – how could a man for whom righteousness of conduct was important, do something like this, despite the fact that Draupadi insults him during her Swayamvar. Each person is the sum total of his experiences – Karna bears the brunt of discrimination right from his birth. Uruvi realizes, as does Karna, that war is certain to follow, which will almost certainly mean Karna’s death, standing by the one friend Duryodhana who gave him the respect almost everyone else denied.

There are portions which deviate from mainstream narration – Uruvi’s character & marriage to Karna itself, Kunti’s characterization, Bhishma’s motivation for keeping Karna away from the battlefield, and aspects of Draupadi’s character, and her relation with Karna. I was a little disappointed at some of the characterization – especially Kunti’s, and also Arjuna & Draupadi.
And yet, the book largely maintains the ethos of the epic. The writing is good, as is the strong buildup of Uruvi’s character. Some of the characterization on the Pandavas side could have been better. Krishna’s advice to Arjuna and his finding his balance could have found mention as well.

If Indian historical fiction interests you (specifically the Mahabharata), this is a great book to read.

My rating: 4.5 / 5.


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Review: The Friend

The Friend by Teresa Driscoll
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a story which packs great pace, as good thrillers should. Sophie is on a train and distraught as her son Ben is one of two boys in hospital. Her husband Mark is on the train as well.

The story alternates between the present and the past. The story in the past starts off when Emma moves into town with her son Theo. Sophie likes her immediately and they get along very well. A shocking murder follows unnerving the local residents. While it seems an open and shut case initially, there is a hint that there may be more to it than meets the eye.

As story progresses, it is clear that Emma has a past which Sophie and others do not entirely know about. But does any of it matter today to her friend Sophie?

There are some twists in the story, as one would expect towards the end. The book is a very easy and engrossing read, especially due to the fast pace and good characterization. And yet, the story in the later part of the book could have been much better.

My rating: 3.75 / 5


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Review: The Ape That Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve

The Ape That Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve by Steve Stewart-Williams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Behavior is an interesting field to explore – be it human or animal. I read Sapiens and Homo Deus sometime back and liked them for how the books traced the history of how we Sapiens got to where we are. I very recently read the brilliant ‘Behave’ by Robert Sapolsky, which is far more detailed science writing. “The Ape that understood the universe” was a good book to read shortly after. While Behave explores the genesis of individual motivation and behavior, this book in contrast looks at aggregate behavior based on evolutionary psychology and it does a great job at that.

The book starts off on an interesting note with an essay on how an alien species would look at us. There are a number of things which would come across as strange and difficult to explain. For instance, while many humans fear the dark, we are comfortable with fatty and junk food which is where the real danger to us lies! Steve makes some excellent points – if we studied animal behaviors, we would much better understand our own. Most psychologists however assume humans start as a blank slate and that all explanations for behavior are to be found in the learning from environments. The case for evolutionary psychology which the book builds is extremely strong and convincing. Nurture cannot explain a lot of the examples the author cites. While the simple rule of natural selection is propagation of genes, there is a lot more to this when studied in detail.

The book explores the subject in a lot of depth. The sex differences section is especially interesting as well as well written. Be it the animal kingdom or humans, there is a pattern to behavior between the sexes (in most species the relative sizes provide clues). There is a danger here – especially since this could be taken as a stepping stone to prejudice against women among humans. The book explores natural selection with examples of how traits got selected and passed on. At times, it is a struggle for our genes to catch up with the rapid changes in the environment. There are various examples of group selection, altruistic behavior and culture which are discussed at length. As it turns out, a lot of what humans are can be explained with evolutionary psychology. Humans are unique in many ways certainly, and yet the story of what we are is common with much of the animal kingdom.

The concept of memes (similar to the concept of stories in Sapiens) follows towards the end of the book. Humans behave so as to propagate memes to others in the species and to their descendants (eg: religious beliefs). Memes collide with other memes, and there are winners and losers.

There are parts where matter tends to repeat and slows down the pace of the book, Nevertheless, this is an excellent book on evolutionary psychology and definitely recommended reading.

My rating: 4.25 / 5.

I received a free electronic copy of this book from NetGalley for an honest review.


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Review: The Truth About Animals: Stoned Sloths, Lovelorn Hippos, and Other Tales from the Wild Side of Wildlife

The Truth About Animals: Stoned Sloths, Lovelorn Hippos, and Other Tales from the Wild Side of Wildlife by Lucy Cooke
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a book filled with very interesting information about a select set of animals including sloths, bats, penguins, hippos, frogs, eels, pandas, chimpanzees, hyenas and others. Lot of the information is lesser known, and makes for engrossing reading.

For instance, hippos genetic makeup shows a closer match with whales rather than any land animal. How do vultures promptly appear when animals die? And so many other interesting bits of information.

Lucy Cooke closes the book with some excellent passages about how in our thinking we have distanced ourselves so much from animals. We think of them as things which exist for our use, and have license to perform cruel experiments on. The passages in the book on the cruel experiments performed on bats to satisfy our curiosity on how they navigate and using frogs for pregnancy tests is sad to read. Pandas for their cute appearance have become a political industry where they are artificially birthed in captivity and don’t lead very satisfying lives.

While the book for the large part makes for excellent and very engrossing reading, it would have benefited from some more material on what motivates the behavior of each of these animals.

I received a free ecopy from NetGalley to provide an honest review.


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