Book Review: The Jehlum Boys

I was gifted this book by Highbrowscribespub as I was writing reviews of other books. Somehow, it has taken me the year’s end to reach this book on my reading list. Considering my current reading is around holocaust fiction, this book was an easy fit into the reading party.

Preamble:

The story of BFF’s lost and found has been a proven success for Bollywood movies. Often considered a staple but Sureshot plot, it has always attracted the audience’s imagination.

Such a popular theme must be quite easy to narrate, but the challenge comes when you place it in the middle of one of the worst nights of India’s post-independence history and the aftermath.

There are quite a few fiction books based on the Kashmiri situation, but this is my first. The book in a sense is a personal account of the horrific night and the horrendous days that followed. The beauty of the book is that it focuses on the two protagonists, who are friends, and the characters around them. The historic events, therefore, are woven in a tight context, and that is the outstanding element of this book.

The Cover:

I often write about the cover design of contemporary fiction. The face of two boys who stare at us, with their eyes telling the story inside. The joy and tumult of their childhood are reflected. The backdrop of grey skies and the fading effect of the building and the streets indicate the chaotic situation that continues to brew throughout the story.

The Plot:

Two boys from the Kashmir Valley, Mudassir, from a rich Kashmiri Muslim family, and Nishant, from a well-to-do Kashmiri Pandit (Bhatta) family, become thick pals and the top students of their colleges. Both families and the community at large have a cautious but appreciative view of the friendship. The friends excel in their classes and become bosom pals. The story also gives a view of the families — Nishant’s family is still up and coming economically, while Mudassir’s rich family has its undercurrents.

On that fateful night, Mudassir tries to reach Nishant but confronts a crowd that knocks him down. He suffers a two-year coma. Nishant and his family are moved into a refugee camp, under the threat of an angry upsurge against their community.

After months of suffering under woeful conditions, Nishant wriggles out through an inspired academic performance and is admitted to one of India’s renowned institutions. From there, he gets a job in a famous US car company and falls in love with a Bengali girl ‘Aadvita.’

After coming out of a coma, Mudassir splits with his brother Khalid and sister-in-law Azra but falls in love with Samaira. Mudassir’s special liking for Samaira’s daughter ends abruptly when she is caught in the crossfire between the Indian Armed Forces and militants. Assuming that it was an Army soldier who had killed him, he crosses over the border to Pakistan. He spends a few months training but realizes that the custodian of children, Tabrez, in the camp is a sodomist, and confronts him. This leads to a sequence of events where Mudassir kills the camp leader Zaibullah and runs away from the training camp to Karachi, as suggested by his dying Kashmiri friend, Afzal.

While Mudassir is figuring out his life in Karachi, he gets connected with Nishant, through a fateful series of phone calls and conversations. Nishant, who is suffering from nightmares about Mudassir, promptly hatches a plan to reach Karachi and rescue Mudassir. The Pakistani authorities and Tabrez chase them, but the friends manage to escape through a powerboat. Further struggles ensue in the sea, but finally, they are rescued by Nishant’s college friend Murali. The story ends with them driving away into the horizon, to confront their future in the aftermath of their escapade.

My take:

The story is every bit like a Bollywood film. Every scene is well-written and action-packed. The dialogues are well constructed. The pace of the plot never slackens; each scene pushes the story forward. The character arcs are well-designed and delivered throughout the story.

The local lingos, slang, call outs, all indicate the first-hand experience of the author. Even the US part of the story is well-researched.

The key point is that the story focuses only on the two protagonists and never takes its eyes away. The other characters ride along, delivering cameos, as the story does not pause for the supporting characters. I find this a unique feature of the author’s style.

The characters are pristine, sometimes too pristine. They emote at the right places. Even the villains through their mighty punches appropriately. I miss a bit of quirkiness, considering the fast tempo of the narrative.

The story is intriguing, nevertheless. It is an out-and-out, action-packed, best-friends-forever story in the backdrop of the Kashmiri situation. A one-time, weekend read.

~Ashok Subramanian