Mohini by Ramendra Kumar

Mohini by Ramendra Kumar

First Sentence:
Anjali looked around.

Story:
Mohini was at the top of her career. She was the most sought after heroine in Bollywood. She was famous. She was rich. She was adored. She now had everything that she had ever wished for and she should have been happy.

But, Mohini had attempted suicide.

This is her story. The story of how Manga, who was a daughter of failed junior artist, became the most sought after heroine, Mohini.

How was Mohini able  to achieve her aim? What did she had to do to ensure her success?

And after achieving  all that, why did she try to kill her self?

Mohini is the story of darkness behind the glamour. The story of passion, obsession, love,and betrayal.

Major Characters:
Anjali – A young woman who had joined film industry to be a junior artist
Imran – A agent who used to give work to junior artists
Narayan – Anjali’s maternal cousin
Jyoti – Narayan’s wife
Manga – Anjali’s daughter who went on to become Mohini
Nagesh – a dance director
Amrit Bhatt – A top most bollywood producer
Kaka Kundan – A big bollywood star
Reena Dey – Kaka’s girl friend and a heorine whose career was on the decline
Vikram Sarin aka Vicky – Mohini’s manager
Sam Xavier aka SX -Bollywood’s top most director
Devika Kaushal – A film critic
Shabnam – Mohini’s arch rival
Didi ji – Shabnam’s elder sister
Rakesh Kapoor- Managing director of Film Flair
Ritwik Roy – A young actor
John Rhodes- A hollywood directot
Mike Shorty -Sam’s trouble shooter
Ajay Reddy- Media Reporter
Jackie Kataria – An american diamond merchant who used to organize stage shows
Karen – Jackie’s wife

My Views:
I enjoyed reading Mohini by Ramendra Kumar. The book is a very fast read. It hooks you from the start. Once you know who Mohini is, you want to know more about her.

The book takes you through her life. You get to witness the decisions she made. You get to see the ways in which she manipulates people and you also get to see how in turn she’s manipulated by the other people. And in the course of it the book gives you a glimpse of the industry. How the favours are obtained? How they are maintained? What’s the drama behind all that glitter. All of it is written in such a way that you keep on reading till the book is finished.

The world that Ramendra has created in this novel is nothing new. If you are interested in Bollywood then you must be aware of the situations that have been depicted here. How news are planted? How role are cut? How apparent friends end up back-stabbing you. These are things that have been depicted many times in films and news stories.. The only thing different here is that Mohini, the protagonist, is not some gullible or innocent girl. She knows the game and knows how to play it. She’s not your typical goody two shoes.  She knows what she wants, she knows what she has to do to get what she want and then she does it without any compunctions. For her ends justify the means and hence there were times when i couldn’t root for her.When she makes her mistakes and then pays for them,  i felt she got what she deserved.

Although,  Mohini is the protagonist in the story and you see the industry through her lens you know she is no different from the other person who’s against her. Yes, since it’s her story so we know things about her that makes us sympathetic about her but then that once we know the other person’s story then we would know such things about them too and may be we would feel sympathetic towards them.

There was only one thing in the book that bugged me, though. I couldn’t get why she decided to do Ritwik. It was so out of the character move for her. It felt kind of weak plot point to me. The author could have given a stronger reason to her.

If you are looking for a quick enjoyable  weekend read then this would not disappoint you. It has every kind of masala in it to make it a very spicy read.

Rating 3/5

If you have read this book, then what did you thought of it? Please, do tell me in the comments.
If you haven’t read this book then you can get it from the following links: