This was a good read. It kept the interest alive consistently through out the book inspite of it being a 900 pager.
I guess, I was interested more because the setting was Mumbai and that too not too much in the past. It covers a time from say 80s to early 00s including the 9/11. There are multiple characters - be it people from the police, the underworld, ordinary people in Mumbai - all of it is woven well into this novel.
It is a well written script with no loose ends. It touches all characters both at the holistic level and at the minutiae with their thoughts & emotions. It tends to touch upon the contradiction that is man.
It talks about how the underworld operates and is fiction based on real life stories of Dawood Ibrahim (Suleiman Isa?), Arun Gawli (the main protagonist) and a lot of other characters. It talks about how the police operate a lot of times in cahoots with sections of the underworld. It talks about how the police, crime, politics & other major players in the country are all inter-dependent on each other to serve their ends.
Apart from the big picture, one is also touched by the emotions of people, be it the escape of Sartaj Singh's family from Pakistan during partition or the later revelation of the lost sister (Navneet?), different type of people - the honest man (Sartaj Singh's father), mildly corrupt people who believe in ideals (Sartaj Singh, Katekar) and the highly corrupt (Parulkar).
All in all... a good read
