Book Review: RIP

Book:- RIP

Author:- Mukul Deva

ISBN:- 978-93-82618-19-5

Genre:- Fiction/Thriller

Price:- 200 (I got this book from Blogadda in a  book review program)

Pages:- 286

Publisher:- Westland ltd

Introduction:-
Have you ever given a thought on this statement-“Whoever we are at present be it our mentality, our thinking or what we do has a reflection of our past and a slimmer of ray what we ought to be in the future.” Thou art of fiction this book endeavors the present state of our country and an individual if glanced at large and would easily be conceived as one of those resurgent response of a group of suffering Indians in a hope of a better tomorrow. Had it not been the disclaimer it would have been difficult to trace the fictional part; as the plot, the storyline even the characters resemble with the natives of real India. That’s the charisma of the writer, fiction looks real. I bet you can’t get off with this thriller until you have gone through to the final climax of the story.

Cover Page:
 Those who have read novels of Mukul Deva, can actually make a smart guess of the backdrop by looking at the Cover page itself. A commando standing facing the bright sunlight as if rearing to face each and everything, an Injection injecting the venom into the Author (Author’s name), the title RIP with a bullet symbol and the image of 10 Janpath with Indian national Flag at the rear tells a lot for the story itself.

About the Author:
An alumnus of La Martiniere College, Lucknow, the National Defence Academy, Pune and the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun, Mukul Deva was commissioned in December 1981 into the Sikh Light Infantry of the Indian Army. He took early retirement from the army after fifteen years of service, including a decade of combat operations in India and overseas. Now settled in Singapore, he is an entrepreneur, motivational speaker and an executive, business and creativity coach. He is also a Mentor on the United Nations Institute of Training and Research Afghanistan Fellowship. He is known as one of the finest fiction writer for military thriller, with “Lashkar” one of the bestsellers following the suite.

Compositional Report:
This Story revolves around a Para Military Retired Colonel. Krishna Athawale and his group of 5 other apt members (Karan Singh, Kevin David, Kashif Nadeem, Kamlesh Saikia & Kulwant Singh) forming a K-Team. In a view to upsurge the shape of Indian Political system at large and a hope of envisioning corruption free India, K-Team followed the route of bloodshed assassinating the culprits revealing their fortifying agony against the corrupt Politicians and Bureaucrats.

A score mystifying story with a blend of professional and personal life of Col.K Athawale which is pertinent to the reason why he quit Para Commando in spite of being a super hero, risking his life every moment after his brother in law’s demise in an Air-plane crash, a result of spurious parts supplied to the Air force by arms dealer (Afzal Hasan) in collusion with a politician (Anduvetti Rajappan) who walked away scot-free. The rage was piling upon as numerous others perpetrators of scams and scandals such as Bofors, 2G, Commonwealth games were set free.

Another Important Chunk of this intimidating story lies in its inclination towards the private life of Col.K Athawale which deals with his son (Sachin), Sister (Payal) and Payal’s Co-worker at NDTV news channel (Reena Bhagat) . Though being a sub plot within the main theme, it’s the outcome of the Love triangle between Col.K Athawale, Reena and Reena’s Separated Husband cashiered Captain Raghav Bhagat which ended the story on Col.K Athawale’s favour. More so because of Raghav’s wrong doings against her wife, the society and the country each taken into its rightful prospective.

The role of  Raghav Bhagat in conjuncture to the story’s end was more prominent as he was hired by Home minister (DM Karunakaran) to destabilize the K-Team from its roots and finish them unofficially before Karunakaran’s appointed member headed by director Vinod bedi of CBI could lay their hands on K-Team catching them alive. Since the K-Team was targeting the corrupt, Karunakaran tried to double cross them by hiring Raghav as K-Team’s arrest would throw tantrums on his own wrong doings. Home Minister’s throw of two dice backfired on his own back at the end.

Featured details would be encompassing blackwash of those high class criminals one after the other, after intimidating it to the public much before and aftereffects that lay ahead. The penchant use of technology both in writing and description, the detailing of the incidences one after the other with special reference of an Aura of Army backdrop and a crackerjack end gave the story a thrilling finish. Only thing which kept me bugging was its semblance with coincidences like how come Reena, Raghav, Col.K Athawale and Vinod travel at the same time in the same plane without knowing the other’s routine furthermore none from K-Team or Raghav’s or Vinod’s squad were present? How come Both Raghav and Vinod forgot to inform even a soul while tempting to cover up the monumental assassin attempt alone in addition to Kulwant not informing Col.K Athawale that he was struck at the basement? Over looking these Coincidences this is a phenomenal story almost a glitch free. A must read for all those people who love to read thrillers and a thriller relating to Military and resemblance to one’s own country’s problem and supplementary Romance is indeed rare. The entire story will make you feel like that of the movie ‘Rang de Basanti’ with an exception an exemplary happy ending.
Over all it’s a master piece of a military thriller. I would give it a score of 4.5 out of 5




Life Adjudication of the story:
An Eye opener best read at this very time when our country is falling to cope up with similar termites who are eating our country from within. It’s a story for the national upbringing.



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