When I started reading Sandeep Sharma's second book, Let The Game Begin, it instantaneously reminded me of Surendra Mohan Pathak's work. Commercial fiction at its 'boorish' best. Mr. Pathak has been penning novels at a breathtaking speed for last 30-odd years and so far, the count is somewhere in the vicinity of 300. He is credited as the undisputed pocket book-king of India and I wouldn't go as far to say Sandeep is matching his aura here but he is certainly trying to match his style, unknowingly. He has added one more dimension to his second book which Pathak's works always lacked; yes, a tinge of mythology, a favorite writing-genre of writers of today but not yesteryears. But I shouldn't really be comparing his works with Mr. Pathak's, I must rather do it with Sandeep's first book: Hey Dad! Meet My Mom. It was a terrific debut work but can I say the same for this one, I seriously doubt. Whereas HDM3 was a flawless piece of work from every literary and technical angle, LTGB falters at various places. I wouldn't dare say anything about the plot for author's efforts could be seen in setting up of each chapter. He has tried very hard to make each of its chapter suspenseful but its the number of chapters and recurring names (a lot) that has played the spoil part here. HDM3 has fewer number of chapters and that's what helped its authors (yes, this author wrote it with Ms Leepi Agarwal) in creating an even pace for its narrative that hooked and gripped on the readers. It was unputdownable and I don't find them many with Indian authors and these two surprised me with that but 35 chapters in a book as thin as 170 pages, I seriously couldn't comprehend the logic of the editor in dividing this book in THAT MANY chapters. I also found a novel thing at the end of this book. It was an 'editor's note' and she has asked the readers and critics for their views on her work. I would have asked her only this: why so many chapters? Didn't they both think it could possibly create hindrances in storytelling?
HDM3 was a technical triumph as well. I didn't find a single mistake within it. No minor-slips, no grammatical blips. Super. LTGB, well not the same case. There are blips and slips here, that too quite early in the book but it gets better as it moves further. It's editor, in her notes has hoped to make amends in second edition should it enter one and I shall hope for no less. It does need a helping hand.
One must be wondering why I brought up the mention of Surendra Mohan Pathak in the first place when I didn't finish his story above. I just wanna ask those readers how you would fathom the status of an author with nearly 300 credits to his name in authorship. Legend? Extraordinarily Prolific? Wizard? An Indianized Sir Arthur Conon Doyle? Well, not nearly anyone of them. Why? Because he never put up with serious elements in his works. His works (he primarily writes in suspense thriller genre, detective novels he is most famous for) were never considered a potboiler like John Le Carre's. He always wrote for fun and writers treated his books as 'fun' and Critics, well they never gave a damn about him. Only when he created a repertoire with 300+ credits to his name, everyone came to know that they had had an experience unlike any. He has got quite a few die-hard fans in Hindi belt but he could have been another Premchandra and Faneeshwarnath 'Renu' had he not always been happy with his pastime works. LTGB is symbolic of his signature works: overall entertaining but never really reaching a place that could be enthralling and satisfying. It's even more disappointing when you think this author had provided us earlier with a fantastic work. I'm sorry to say but it's not a sum total of its 35 parts.
Let's do the rating:
a) Achievement: 2/2
b) Language Skills: 1.5/2
c) Plot and Character Development: 1.5/3
d) Editing and Proofreading: 1/2
e) Book Cover, Page Quality and Blurb: 1/1
Total: 7/10; On a five-pointer scale: 3/5
HDM3 was a technical triumph as well. I didn't find a single mistake within it. No minor-slips, no grammatical blips. Super. LTGB, well not the same case. There are blips and slips here, that too quite early in the book but it gets better as it moves further. It's editor, in her notes has hoped to make amends in second edition should it enter one and I shall hope for no less. It does need a helping hand.
One must be wondering why I brought up the mention of Surendra Mohan Pathak in the first place when I didn't finish his story above. I just wanna ask those readers how you would fathom the status of an author with nearly 300 credits to his name in authorship. Legend? Extraordinarily Prolific? Wizard? An Indianized Sir Arthur Conon Doyle? Well, not nearly anyone of them. Why? Because he never put up with serious elements in his works. His works (he primarily writes in suspense thriller genre, detective novels he is most famous for) were never considered a potboiler like John Le Carre's. He always wrote for fun and writers treated his books as 'fun' and Critics, well they never gave a damn about him. Only when he created a repertoire with 300+ credits to his name, everyone came to know that they had had an experience unlike any. He has got quite a few die-hard fans in Hindi belt but he could have been another Premchandra and Faneeshwarnath 'Renu' had he not always been happy with his pastime works. LTGB is symbolic of his signature works: overall entertaining but never really reaching a place that could be enthralling and satisfying. It's even more disappointing when you think this author had provided us earlier with a fantastic work. I'm sorry to say but it's not a sum total of its 35 parts.
Let's do the rating:
a) Achievement: 2/2
b) Language Skills: 1.5/2
c) Plot and Character Development: 1.5/3
d) Editing and Proofreading: 1/2
e) Book Cover, Page Quality and Blurb: 1/1
Total: 7/10; On a five-pointer scale: 3/5
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