Dreams drive lives. And, lives run on the everlasting dream of getting the illusionary mirage. And, what it traverses on course is life. And, what it loses on course is called soul. Values. Life. In his latest novel Chapter Eleven, Amit Shankar has bluntly exposed the havoc moral bankruptcy the people undergo to step ahead on the corporate ladder – social ladder.
The plot revolves around a Rajput guy – who pursues his dream – joins an MNC – which puts his life upside down. There are various subplots around. But the main plot rotates around the darkness of the corporate culture. The pain the protagonist faces in adapting the same. Love. sleaze. Fun. betrayal. And, their relative effect on human psychology. And, may be testing the compromising level of a soul. The extreme point of stooping down.
The author took a very simple narrative. Procedural. He used extremely lucid language. Most importantly, he successfully created many a moment in the novel. And, that kept the grip on the reader till the very end. To keep the plot moving and gripping all the more – the author took help of a few subplots. Some of them added spice to the story and some helped to delve deep into the psyche of the main protagonist. And, all those helped to tighten the knit of the whole novel as a whole.
As for the plot – it is not path-breakingly innovative or breathtakingly gripping. And, as far as, Indian movies or books if not international are concerned, corporate culture has always been successfully portrayed as dark, dirty, ruthless, sleazy and much more. And, such impression is always alive in minds that ‘behind the pinstripes lives a devil’. So, it was not much a tiring attempt to shake the normal belief. Rather, author took an in-depth view on the same. He went deep into the conspiracy level – the window-dressing mechanisms – the tactical removal of whistleblowers, etc. But, amidst, all these, was it necessary to make the femme lead a femme fatal. May be not. Because, when the whole plot was moving in course of a corporate drama thriller much in the tune of a Quentin Tarantino – this sudden twist coupled with the ‘Rajput’ dialogue at the climax – tops it with an over-spicy melodramatic dosage that somewhat reminds us of Hindi Abbas Mastan.
But he kept the pace all-over. The story never went mundane. Rather it was racy all through. And, the author was successful at that. He was successful in making us feel uncanny at a point – where we unknowingly plunges into the pains of human mind – in course of reading a thriller. We feel uncanny at a point where he points out the silence and clinging onto our Godfather saves us but a good – soul whistleblower gets axed instead. Purposedly. Strategically. We feel uncanny. Does it pose a mirror in front of us reminding us of the moral erosion we undergo every day? Sometimes obligatorily. Sometime knowingly. Sometime unknowingly. We feel uncanny.
Book Details:-
| Author: | Amit Shankar | ||
| Publisher: | Vitasta Publishing | Year of Publishing: | 2013 |
| ISBN-13: | 9789380828336 | ISBN-10: | 9380828330 |
| Cover: | Paperback | No. Of Pages: | 370 |
| MRP: | Rs. 245 | Buy From: | Amazon.in Flipkart.com |
My Verdict
4
In his latest novel Chapter Eleven, Amit Shankar has bluntly exposed the havoc moral bankruptcy the people undergo to step ahead on the corporate ladder – social ladder.
