(My bookish tryst with the ganglands of
Mumbai...as seen through the works of S. Hussain Zaidi)
Okay, so I have been reading a lot of S. Hussain Zaidi’s
works – all about the Mumbai ganglands. And my intense struggle to be able to express
my experience of reading them will be absolutely clear through this post.
The itch of reading Zaidi began some few years ago when I
saw the movie ‘Black Friday’, directed by Anurag Kashyap and based on Zaidi’s
book by the same name. It claimed to essay the real story behind the 1993
Mumbai bomb blasts. The movie was superbly made and executed. Needless to say,
it remains one of my all time favourites. Considering the guts with which the
film was made (taking real names, not aliases
unlike many other real-incident based movies and many more points which I shall
not elaborate here and hence digress) maintaining a safe ground, I was very sure that the book had much more to offer than what could
be seen on the silver screen. And I was right.
But I was to realise this just a few days ago. That is
when I finally read the book. My introduction to Zaidi’s writings turned out to
be far too impressive than I could have imagined. Impressive may not be an
appropriate word here, actually. Stunned, maybe. My thought process stopped and
entered a new realm. This, as soon as I realised that what I was reading was
not a work of fiction but a picture of real life (which I suspect is still not
the complete picture). This book was “Mafia Queens of Mumbai”. I don’t know how
it made me feel. Angry? Surprised? Proud? Ashamed? Zealous? Thoughtful? ... maybe
‘All of the Above and more’. I tried my best to not involve my soul into the
book but I failed miserably. Zaidi was far too talented in writing it down the
way he did.
I was reading something like this for the first time. Leave
alone fiction. Man, this was real stuff. Real women. Real situations. So my
mind did not know how to respond. This was a new stimulus. I may have heard
about, read about (and even interacted with) quite a few from the notorious
class, but none were women. Of all the accounts he presented, Sapna didi was
the one that hit me the most. (to know
more, read the book). It was not so much about women being part of the
mafia. It was more about the process, the function, the intentions. Besides, the
intricate details of the underworld that Zaidi reflected, gave much fodder for
thought. And there began the urge for more...
The next day itself (thanks to Flipkart), I got hold of
his book – “Dongri to Dubai: Six Decades of the Mumbai Mafia” – which left me
even more dumbfounded. Each page made me more and more speechless. As I read the
accounts of the most dreaded gangsters that once had Mumbai under siege, I was
stunned. Stories of people rising to power in the mafia, internal and external
gangwars, expansion into different forms of illegal trade, ruthless killings,
cold blooded murders, uncountable monies, knives and guns, bollywood actresses,
models, sleaze and all that... took me to a point of (should I say) absolute
silence and stillness...? This was beyond reaction.
What was more difficult to digest was that this was actually
happening in my city, in a timeline parallel to mine, and in a fashion that it
did not really affect my everyday life. Or so I thought. Little did I realise
that this was not the case. This is the innate problem found in largesse among
the youth of Mumbai that they can feel only those ‘issues’ that can be seen and
measured. What lies beneath, nobody knows and nobody cares. And those who know
do not dare. But the opening it created in my thought process was beyond
comprehension. This book will now be transformed on screen as ‘Shootout at
Wadala’. But I am sure we’ll get to see a very sublime version.
Finally I knew it was high time I read “Black Friday”. And
it is, like I thought, much more than the film. I am still reading it but could
not hold myself anymore from writing this post. I started writing this post
sometime in April this year when I first read Mafia Queens... but I couldn’t. It
had to happen today. I won’t enumerate on Black Friday since I am not done reading
it. Writing anything would be as incomplete as reading half the book. So just go
ahead and read it. And let me know how you felt.
What I learnt in totality from these readings and my life
experiences is impossible to narrate here. It might just create the space for a
book in itself. But I strongly recommend all of you strong-hearted people to go
ahead and read all his three books and give yourself a never-before experience.
Reading Tip: Try and read between the lines...