Book Review: Under Delhi
Nothing hurts a reader as much than a disappointing read from his/her expectations of a book. When I picked this book, it sounded promising with it’s back cover description of a plot that involved a female vigilante fighting the evils thriving in the capital city, I was looking forward to have a great time with what sounded like a Kick-Ass sort of a story. But instead, I ended up with a less than average, extremely loose story with a somewhat hilarious narrative. Tanya is an interesting character, who loves to drink, party and eat but quite aggressive when it comes to male chauvinists.
Tanya Bisht is the average, slightly plump girl with curly hair, orphaned at a young age, who works as a relator and moonlights as a vigilante, punishing the guys who have escaped from the grip of law through the keys of bribes and power. She is solely interested in getting rid of criminals involved in rape cases and kidnaps them, binds them, tortures them and leaves them with a mark. She works with a group with very little information on them, until she learns their identity. As she learns more, the plot gets extremely confusing, ends ups with her meeting her match, Ramesh Gill – an extremely wealthy guy with a shady business background. How she beats the odds to bring justice forms the story plot.
The best part of the book was the author’s humor. Though cringe-worthy at certain points, the overall narrative is filled with dark humor, sarcasm and pop culture references. Given that the author is a comedian, he has managed to splay a lot of it all around the plot, though not all are funny. He brings out the woes of an everyday life for a city girl – be it at work or outside the workplace. Certain scenes are graphic and unconventional, but I guess it goes with the theme of the book.
Now, to get to the bad part. The plot is extremely floozy with a lot of untied ends(unintentional!), illogical at certain places and extremely unlikely for the most of it. The characters are left undeveloped – Tanya Bisht, is the only character that receives enough attention. But this could be because the author wanted to center the story around her. I repeatedly got a feeling that the author tried to recreate a female sort of character blended in with the Kick-Ass Chloë Grace Moretz, but failed terribly at it.
Maybe because I picked this book after an extremely relishing Keigo Higashino, I was left terribly disappointed. With Bollywood-ish scenes (And not the good one, more like Farah Khan and David Dhawan style),
this book is not for one who is into serious book reading or anyone looking for a good plot!
Title: Under Delhi
Author: Sorabh Pant
Publisher/ Imprint: Hachette India
Pages: 256
Genre/ Sub-Genre: Fiction/ Action
Rating: 2.00 of 5
Reviewed for: Publisher
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