Satires are few and satires exploring entertainment industry hardly exist. It's never easy to blend in humor with some serious emotions and then go on to write a book and present it to the readers. Author Farhad J Dadyburjor in his debut novel "How I Got Lucky" tries his hand penning down a satire covering the various aspects of entertainment industry from the eyes of a magazine reporter. So does the satire works? Let's find out.
A satire on the entertainment world set against the frenzied buzz of Mumbai city
I was with Lucky... Lucky Star. He showed me what he was wearing to the Cannes Film Festival. Hes given me an Exclusive.
Raman Malhotra is thirty five, uninitiated in the matters of love, and endlessly confused about his sexuality. A journalist with The Weekly, his search for front page scoops come to a screeching halt when hes assigned the Bollywood beat. Throw into the mix the shenanigans of an overpowering lesbian photographer, a dirt-swapping PR queen, a webcam model doling out sexual favours, and a rising Bollywood star.
Ramans blah existence is dramatically thrown off-kilter when he finds himself being pursued and courted by the bisexual king of Bollywood, Lucky Star. Puckered into a world of celebrity, malicious gossip, and meaningless shags Raman wrestles with his sense of self, ideas of love, and the monstrous caricatures of entertainment.
First look at the title and the cover and it sounds humorous to the readers. The vibrant cover image and the witty title works as a charm for the book. The blurb highlights the theme of the book and talks about the central character of the story. The blurb is quite bold in speaking about it's theme and there are no doubts saying that it gels well with the title and the cover of the book.
The story revolves around Raman a journalist who is assigned a job by his boss Shaila to get some sneek peeks good or bad about celebrities and help them in increasing the readership of the magazine. Raman goes on to explore the wild side of the entertainment industry where he stumbles across all sorts of people like a lesbian photographer and her affairs, an upcoming star In Manjeet & not to forget Lucky Star the heart throb of Bollywood who later on goes on to have an affair with Raman which is kept away from the media. Raman is stifled out by the stiff competition in his office from Shaan her colleague and the happenings on his personal front. So will he able to rise in his new assignment or will fall down with a thud? That's what the story is all about.
If there is seriousness in the story then there is humor too. If it talks about discreet relationships and wild flings then it talks about office jealousy and competition too. If it talks about entertainment industry as a whole then it talks about office pressure and the knick-knack of being a journalist too. The story has all in it to make it a perfect satire for the readers to cherish. It's quite different from a regular story line and few surprises awaits the readers every now and then in the story. Spot on narration and dark and bright side of entertainment industry awaits as a package for the readers.
The downside of the book are the first few chapter which go nowhere at all. It takes a lot of time to build up a story around Raman. The pace is slow at times and it feels a bit dragged in the middle parts of the book.
All in all it's a humor filled story of a person with lot of turmoil and upheaval in emotions time and again. It takes sometime to get the grasp of the story but after that it's a ride worth hitching and a journey worth undertaking with Raman Malhotra.
RATINGS:
4 OUT OF 5
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