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Ravan Ani Eddie (रावण आणि एडी)
ब्रिटिश वसाहतीनंतरच्या भारतातल्या दोन कल्पनातीत हिरोंच्या जीवनात घडणाऱ्या वात्रट व साहसी कृत्यांची एक अतिशय विनोदी, 'रिबल्ड' कादंबरी.
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Bedtime Story And Black Tulip
Kiran Nagarkar is one of India's most significant writers. Of a piece with his searing, dark, wickedly funny works are these experiments with form: the screenplay Black Tulip and the play Bedtime Story, both of which, in keeping with the author's virtuosity, push the boundaries of their forms. Meet Black Tulip, aka Rani, a seasoned con artist and yoga expert with a taste for expensive jewellery. Hot on her trail is ACP Regina Fielding, a daredevil cop whose style and panache Rani worships. Rani executes one eye-popping heist after another and the cat-and-mouse game between the two heats up. But even as things come to a head, Mumbai is held to ransom by terrorists, and the two ballsy antagonists, along with Rani's new boyfriend, a computer whizkid and hacker, must come together. The fate of the city rests with them. Black Tulip is a pacey, entertaining caper with a host of seedy characters - corrupt ministers, mob bosses, petty criminals, religious fanatics - in a world where nothing is as it seems. In Bedtime Story, the author uses the epic Mahabharata as a peg on which to hang a shocking tale of injustice and oppression. As a grandmother narrates a bedtime story, giving delectable twists to the age-old stories of Karna, Ekalavya and Draupadi, we see the gender and class violence that underlies the old tales of valour. Traversing the landscape of wars across the centuries - the ancient war of Kurukshetra to the Second World War, from the Bangladesh war in 1971 and to modern-day wars in boardrooms, Nagarkar reveals how little has changed in the centuries since the Mahabharata. Bedtime Story has been targeted by religious fundamentalist groups ever since it was first written after the Emergency in 1975 and this edition includes a trenchant essay on censorship and freedom of expression. The two works in this collection are a testimony to the multifaceted genius of Kiran Nagarkar.
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Sat Sakam Trechalis (सात सक्कं त्रेचाळीस)
लेखक किरण नगरकर यांची ही जळजळीत आणि बेधडक कादंबरी एक अस्वस्थ अनुभव देते. माणूस आणि त्याचे जगणे केद्रस्थानी असलेली आणि त्यातील असहायता, नश्वरता उलगडून दाखवीत देह व मनाच्या अपरिहार्य भोगाचे विखारी चटके देणारी ही कांदंबरी वास्तवाला थेट भिडते. ते सादर करण्याचे तंत्रही निराळे, स्तिमित करणारे, वेगळ्या विश्वात घेऊन जाणारे, भाषाही तशीच आपल्यावर थेट येऊन आदळते, चक्रावते कधी ओळखीची कधी अनोळखी! विनोद, कारुण्य, दुःख, भयानकता, मृत्यू, फोलपणा... भावनांचा कल्लोळ उसळवत, विस्कटून टाकते. वेगळे अनुभवण्याची इच्छा असणा-या सर्वांनाच जिवंत अनुभव देणारी ही कादंबरी.
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The Extras
Ravan and Eddie are back! And they’re bigger, better and guaranteed to have you laughing out loud. Having grown up in the city of movie stars who drip glamour, the two mortal enemies, Ravan and Eddie dream of strutting down the road to super-stardom. But can Ravan, a lowly taxi driver, and Eddie, a bouncer-cum-bartender at an illegal bar, rise from their dusty CWD chawl to the glittering heights of international fame? To complicate matters further, their love lives hang by a thread. Eddie, secure in having got Belle, the Anglo-Indian girl of his dreams, must now figure out how to overcome prejudice from both their families and his own apathy, in order to keep her. And Eddie’s sister Pieta, the object of Ravan’s adoration, is completely oblivious to his existence – until he saves her life. Complete with a cast of soul-searching drunks, a nemesis called Three Point One, and nymph-like damsels in distress, The Extras is much more than a book about Bollywood or Bombay. It is the engrossing tale of a near-epic struggle against obscurity and towards self-realization; and is outrageously exuberant in the telling, and touching in its depiction of the large and small tragedies that shape our lives.
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God’s Little Soldier
From the backstreets of Bombay to the hallowed halls of Cambridge, from the mountains of Afghanistan to a monastery in California, the story of Zia Khan is an extraordinary rollercoaster ride; a compelling cliffhanger of a spiritual quest, about a good man gone bad and the brutalization of his soul. Growing up in a well-to-do, cultured Muslim family in Bombay, Zia, a gifted young mathematician, is torn between the unquestioning certainties of his aunt’s faith and the tolerant, easy-going views of his parents. At Cambridge University, his beliefs crystallize into a fervent orthodoxy, which ultimately leads him to a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan. The burden of endemic violence and killings, however, takes its toll on Zia. Tormented by his need for forgiveness, he is then drawn reluctantly to Christ. But peace continues to elude him, and Zia is once again driven to seek out causes to defend and fight for, whatever be the sacrifices involved. Posited against Zia is his brother, Amanat, a writer whose life is severely constrained by sickness, even as his mind is liberated by doubt. Theirs is a relationship that is as much a blood bond as it is an opaque wall of incomprehension. Weaving together the narratives of the extremist and the liberal, God’s Little Soldier underscores the incoherent ambiguities of good and evil, and the tragic conflicts that have riven people and nations.
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Ravan & Eddie
This is a hilarious story of Ravan, a Maratha Hindu, and Eddie, a Roman Catholic, growing up to adolescence on different floors of the Central Works Deptt. Chawl No. 17 in Bombay... Nagarkar writes so honestly and effectively that he has brought the smell of the fish and the urine of the chawls right into our drawing rooms.' - The Tribune 'It's bawdy, it's wicked and it's irreverent. The novel is a wild romp through a quintessential Indian institution: the chawl.' - Business World 'Ravan and Eddie compels attention. The sheer power, vigour and imaginative lusciousness of the narration possess a stunning visual quality.' - The Telegraph 'Kiran Nagarkar is a born storyteller with an unerring eye for detail, skilled in the use of words and an artist of the erotica.' - Indian Today 'Ravan and Eddie is delightful fiction.' - The Pioneer
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Pratispardhi
कादंबरी सोळाव्या शतकातील; परंतू तिची स्पंदनं मात्र कालातीत. याचं कारण तिचे अनेक पैलू आणि मनुष्य स्वभावाचा नागरिकांनी अतिशय खोलवर घेतलेला शोध. त्या काळातील वास्तव जिवंत करत असतानाच मेवाडच्या राजघराण्यातील अंतर्गत कलह आणि मानसिकता याचं चित्रण हा कादंबरीचा मुख्य गाभा. नगरकरांची पारदर्शक, नितळ आणि जिवंत भाषा मनाची पकड घेणारी. मग विषय कुठाचाही असो, राजकीय महत्वकांक्षा, हेवेदावे, युद्ध, जय-पराजय, भक्ती आणि धर्म तसेच विविध काला या सर्वांचाच आपल्या जीवनाशी संबंध जोडणारी ही कादंबरी आहे आणि मुख्य म्हणजे कादंबरीची गतिमानता वाचकाला पूर्णतः खिळवून ठेवते!