Book Review: "RIP" by Mukul Deva

First things first. RIP, here, doesn't stand for what it popularly means. RIP stands for Resurgent Indian Patriots. The first thing you observe when you get hold of this book is that a lot is revealed in the cover page itself. There's a shadow of a guy who, we can safely assume, is a commando with a gun. There's a syringe on top with a bullet representing an "I" in RIP. All this with a backdrop of either an explosion or the "Sun". Lots explained from the cover! Interestingly, the author's name (Mukul Deva) seems more prominent than the book's name. This could be a conscious effort by the author and the publishers (Westland Ltd.) for promotional purposes or maybe just the way I look at it. But it sure has an impact!

Target Audience:

1. Readers who love Military thrillers

2. Young Indians, especially those who yearn for change!

3. Readers who love to cross the line between reality and fiction - you guys will enjoy this book!

Plot: The book starts with introducing some members of the K-Team in a wedding party involving the daughter of a businessman wind the son of a politician in Delhi. It's called the K-team as it involves ex-military personnel whose names start with K - Colonel named Krishna Athawale, Majors Karan Singh, Kevin David, Kashif Nadeem, Kamlesh Saikia & Kulwant Singh. Their intention in the party is to kill a pot-bellied politician who is protected with bodyguards. And they actually do it without even the bodyguards and by-standers knowing! Similar incidents happen in cities like Chennai and Pune. Astonishing right? And that's how the plot remains throughout the book. Now when you do something against the powerful people, there are repercussions right? Government appoints teams to track down the K-team and as a result, civilians, involving the family members of the K-team, are killed in this cross-fire. All the K-team wants is to have an effective and transparent governance of our country. Do they achieve it in the end / at what cost? - is explained in the rest of the book.

Writing: The author has smartly named the characters based on different religion to point out the fact that this is not a religious group. The author claims that the book is an art of fiction and events / personalities have been fictitiously used (which means, the events might be true but is still considered fictional - smart again!). As you read through the book, you will be able to clearly recognize the event and the person involved in real life. There's a airplane hijacking incident, an arms-scam incident, scams involving fodder, technology (that's still very much happening today). Also, the author has not shied away from using abusive language. Now, I am not sure if it's part of the military dialect, but even if it is, the frequency of using such words should have been controlled for the larger benefit of the reading audience.

Relevance in today's times: If at all there's a time in India for this book to be relevant, it's now! It's highly relevant in today's scenario. The book depicts the plight of our country as it exists today and offers an alternate (and in my opinion, a bold and somewhat unrealistic - given that we are a democracy) solution to solve them. The author Mukul Deva himself conveys the same about this book:

"This book was born out of an extreme sense of anger and shame. Anger at the appalling, naked greed so shamelessly displayed by the Indian Political class. And shame that they happen to be fellow-Indians"

Overall, this book is a worthy page turner. The precision involved in "correcting the wrongs" in the society is amazingly described. There are different ways in which you will enjoy this book. You can enjoy this book as a thriller. You can enjoy it for it's striking co-relation with the real India.

Buy hey, take the story and the solutions with a pinch of salt.

My Rating: 4 / 5.

PS: This review is part of the Book Reviews Program at BlogAdda. A special thanks to the BlogAdda team for selecting me for the review process.