Thoughts & Review on “Love Curry” by Pankaj Dubey


Thoughts & Review on “Love Curry” by Pankaj Dubey





Imagine a  flavor full curry of characters. The spices are perfectly blended and they complement each other. Each are incomplete without the other. That is what “Love Curry” by Pankaj Dubey is all about.

Three roommates, from three neighboring sub continents& just like their neighboring countries relationships with each other, Rishi Mathur from India, Shehzad from Bangladesh & Ali from Pakistan have with each other. They quarrel, they bicker, fight world wars over cricket matches & food and yet they remain best of friends at heart and lookout  for each other.

The three roommates apart from sharing the flat in London & also share a turbulent, troubled past each different from one another. They have all come to London to escape the past and form their lives again. Rishi, wants to be a nondescript & a sustaining employee anywhere, where he is in the background & he can survive the till & drill of daily life. Ali, a chef from Lahore wants to earn enough money so that he can rebuilt his family restaurant once again in Lahore &Shehzad, a brilliant tattoo artist has come to London to escape his emotional hurdles.

The three share an easy camaradie in their London digs. The only ray of sunshine, especially in Shehzad & Ali’s lives is their landlord Mullah’s 18 yr old daughter Zeenat Aman. Rishi is indifferent to the emotions of affection, while Shehzad is quite the stud in the group and has easily crossed the boundaries of steamy love with Zeenat , Ali has an affinity for her like a devout for his God.

The roommates march on in their lives & taking it  head on as it comes. While rishi is in & out of his jobs, Ali tries to heals Rishis’s unemployment wounds by whipping up a delicious curry and Shehzad eases the atmosphere with his antics. As a reader, we are given glimpses in  their lives, their past, their emotional & physical burdens. Their rivalry is upped at time, at the mention of Partition, East Bengal & the geographical politics which has haunted the three countries most of the time.

Zeenat, knowingly unknowingly becomes an integral part of their lives. To the indifferent Rishi, it hardly mattered, To Shehzad he finally realized that he loved her & for Ali he was the chosen by Zeenat’s parents Mullah &Fiza. Rishi finally hits the bull eye, when he becomes “Agony uncle” for a newspaper & his purpose is finally realized. Its here where the story takes a major turn in everyone’s lives. From a fun, frolicking stories of three friends, it suddenly takes a serious turn where reality hits them hard. 

Author Pankaj Dubey does a brilliant job in penning down the last major part of the story.
As a reader, we are not aware of the sudden change & the shift of emotions. What is heartening to see or to rather read, that the three protagonists never lose their friendship and they stand by each other through thick and thins. 

The ending of course changed everyone’s lives & most of it is for the better.
Pankaj Dubey creates believable characters and makes us fall for each character in different phases in the book. Be it the flamboyant Shehzad or quiet , romantic, Jaun elia ghazal loving Chef Ali or a wise “Agony Uncle” Rishi, the characters are filled with life. Zeenat “zeenie” Aman who is the heart of the book is straight out of a dream , her twists and turns in the book are quite remarkable and yet there was a certain part of her which as a reader I couldn’t term with.

A special mention to the Balti Chicken mentioned in the book. The name itself has piqued my curiosity and it is also what binds the trio together. “curry is what holds them together.” PankajDubey does a commendable job in writing about the Immigrant’s London, he makes the streets come alive with their dreams, failures, desires, aspiration, helplessness and hope. Pankaj Dubey’seffective prose holds the book together with crisp editing, easy dialogues and the day to day drama & tantrums of the trio &Zeenat Aman.
 
I will totally be not surprised if this book ever comes out as a movie or a mini series. It has all the makings of it. In hindsight , this is a story of immigrants, different from the league of “Namesake” or the “Inscrutable Americans”, Pankaj Dubey adds his own lighter vein to it. His subtle dry humor through out the book, gives us a reason to smile even through the difficult moments in the book.

As for now, after completing this engaging, one sitting book, I am looking forward to make Balti Chicken (vegetarian version) & perhaps dream about Shehzad or Ali.

Name of the book :- Love Curry
Author :- Pankaj Dubey
Publishing House :- Penguin Random House India
Genre :- Fiction 
No.of Pages :- 202
ISBN -9780143424505
Book Source- Flipkart  Review Program
You can buy the book from :- Flipkart | Amazon | Infibeam 



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