Maximum City

Merchant

Those reactions on Amazon were puzzling. Mehta explores the recent development of Mumbai (last 20 years or so), without blinking at the politics. The Shiv Sena are the "Army of Shivaji," the Hindu nationalist party headed by cartoonist-turned-politico Bal Thackeray. They take their name from a 17th century Hindu military figure, fighting Mughal (Muslim) oppression. One of the Shiv Sena's campaigns in 1980s was an attempt to stop all the migration into Bombay by people from other states--Bombay should be just for Maharastrians (residents of the state in which Mumbai resides) and not all the Tamils and others who were arriving in large numbers. He notes that for all the Sena's championing of Marathi people and culture, as times have changed the locals have become little more than servants in their own city. I think ghatis are Maharastrians from the mountains outside Mumbai--hillbillies. The Amazon readers, Maharastrians themselves, seem to think that Mehta is disparaging them, when he is pointing out the failures and corruption of the party that rose to prominence by promising to protect their proud culture and provide jobs for them. So they call him a snob.

The Shiv Sena, as he describes in the book, were responsible for some of the agitation that culminated in the Bombay riots in 92-93, following the destruction of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya.

So you get a tour of Indian politics of recent years.

One thing I really liked about the book, and which some readers may find annoying, is that he doesn't slow down to explain common Hindi terms or locations in Mumbai if he doesn't have to. He assumes the readers knows the city, at least in passing, and won't stumble over words like crore or chowl or goonda. It's refreshing, in my view, in that he didn't write the book for a dumb white audience but for a wordly one.

Merchant

Before you read the book, pick up the DVD for Mani Ratnam's "Bombay" (Arvind Swami and Manisha Koirala). You'll learn all about the Babri Masjid riots and see Thackeray on screen with his thick square glasses.

The movie is a Hindu/Muslim love story set against the tragedy, a powerful social commentary, and one of India's best-loved movies despite the violence. And the soundtrack propelled A.R. Rahman to superstardom.

DoDi

Thank you very much Merchant. What an interesting answer... there's so much I don't know, and so many fascinating things to find out about India.

To top it off there are such wonderful Indian writers whose books make the learning pure pleasure...

One more request, I hope that I can drop in here to ask a question now and then about the words and references I encounter in Maximum City, but don't yet understand.

Merchant

Most of it is pretty clear. If something still doesn't make sense, try this:

http://www.saja.org/stylebook.html

You'll get up to speed pretty fast.

DoDi

excellent!

bongdongs

Well I was waiting for this to to come up, anyway let me try to explain. I too read the book recently on Merchant's advice and loved it (partly because I have been a Mumbai-kar part of my life). But let me explain a few things ...

Not really, Suketu paints a rather 2-D picture of the city. Its as if a person writing a book on New York wrote about drugs, prostitution, strip clubs, mafia gangs, poor black and hispanic neighbourhoods. All this may be true of New York but is hardly a complete picture. If someone was to judge Bombay solely by this book it would make a very very scary place (which in reality it isnt).

Also Suketu sometimes casts a rather jaundiced view. For instance he can't find a single good thing to say about his old high school. Hey, they fact that he writes so well means some teacher of his must have done a good job, isnt it?

I dont know the origin of the word "ghati", but it is slang for all Maharastrians. It can be offensive as the word in Marathi can also mean "worthless" or "inferior". It is not a word Maharastrians would use to describe themselves.

About the South Bombay divide, South Bombay (Churchgate, Cuffe Parade, Pedder Road ...) represents the "old" elite of Bombay which was almost completely non-maharastrian. The "old" rich of Bombay were mainly muslim (Bohri), Parsi and Gujarati's. Bombay sometime in the 50-60's onwards was no longer a city in which this elite wielded any power.

Mohammed Ali Jinnah and Bhutto of Pakistan, Farid Zakaria, Godrej, Nusli Wadia, the Tata's all come from this society.

Oh, I do think this book is written for a mainly western audience. Indian's (specially mumbai-kars) need no introduction to people like Amitabh, Sanjay Dutt, Dawood, Shakeel or Chota Rajan.

The movies to watch along with this book are:

Ab Tak Chappan, Company, Satya
Chandni Bar

Didnt want to write all this before, but since it came up :-). Please dont misunderstand me, its a very good book, but I can also see why some people are offended.

Auntyji

Merchant, thanks very much for the link.

Bongdongs, nice post. It's true that some people will read the book and think that it represents Bombay wholly-I guess an interested reader will have to find out more for himself (if he hasn't been completely frightened away!).

I don't think the movie "Bombay" is all that good- it was Mani Ratnam's usual half-hearted attempt at tackling serious issues, and I cannot think of the movie as social commentary. "Satya" was far more interesting and compelling.
I'm not sure Bombay is one of India's best-loved movies either....anyone checked it's box-office records vs. that of Sholay's?

bongdongs

"Bombay", of course is uniquely in Mani Ratnam's style, which is still quite close to the traditional commercial. Ram Gopal Varma has brought this gritty, hyper-real style which is totally new to Hindi movies. Satya, Company and "Ab Tak Chappan" are all his movies. I absolutely loved "Ab Tak Chappan". The movie title means "56 so far", which refers to the number of people the "encounter specialist" cop has killed till now. One caveat would be that the slang and some of the circumstances are totally authentically Mumbai and may be difficult for some people to understand.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0890060/

Merchant

Mani Ratnam is one of the best visual storytellers I've ever seen. He's also rare in India in that his movies are all shot in realist style, almost like documentaries. He also uses the song sequences to advance the narrative instead of depart from it.

It's all for the masses, of course. But it's interesting the way he has put the Bollywood idiom to serious purposes--riots (Bombay) and terrorism (Roja and Dil Se).

BhuttaJi

I have just started reading Gem in the lotus; The seeding of Indian Civilisation By Abraham Eraly. I was wondering if folks out there have read it and what are your thoughts?

vista

There's a subjective and really nice book called Elsa cloud which is about how a colonial(british raj ) mother goes back to india to meet her daughter who joined a Tibetan buddhist order with the the dalai lama.

Vasko

Just finished reading Maximum City the other day and really enjoyed it. It's astonishing how close up Mehta seems to have gotten to the people of the mafia, police, sex and film industries. This really gives you the sensation that you are getting a genuine peek into the underworld.

I agree with iyou that the middle part of the book plodded along a bit, especially the description of Monalisa the barline dancer. I got this feeling that Mehta couldn't clearly articulate what his relationship to this girl was and he spends too many pages just juggling it around, not being able to decide whether to go for an "objective" description or a more honest, subjective one. A beautiful woman always(?) makes men uneasy. He really pulled it off admirably with the murderers and the rest, though.

I found that the most touching story was waiting in the end: the story of the aspiring Bihari poet living on the footpaths of the city. Short but captivating and beautiful.

I have always been fascinated by Bombay. When you wander around the city you get a strong feeling that the city holds so many stories, so many secrets. After this book this feeling has only grown stronger. Definitely recommended!

bijapuri

In the book, a Ghati is said to originate in the Ghats, hence, someone from the hills beyond the city.

I'm 100+ pages into it, and apart from being absorbing, I have two observations.
1. the author evokes Sri Vidya in style and the nature of his inquisitiveness.
2. It reads as if he were writing a series of those long pieces that appear in mags liie the New Yorker.
3. Before that, the last book I read on India was "the Red Carpet" about Bangalore. another gem that captures quite well the pulse (or parts of it) of the city i have spent 35 years visiting living and working in. The contrast of the 2 books is suggestive of the diff betwixt the two cities. It's also is a book I highly recommended, and MUCH lighter on the soul . . .
4. while the author may only cover the skanky parts of the megapolis, I don't really see how anyone can cover all aspect of the place, as large as it it. I would, however, like to read about the honest folk there. The author starts out in tha vein, but quickly dives down the rabbitt hole of shadiness, and I last saw an honest person many pages ago trying to get a gas hookup . . . (that was 4, huh )

__________________
Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it's only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.
Barack Obama

lookit me!!!: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bijapuri/

Utube fuzzy logic:
http://youtube.com/profile_videos?user=bijapuri&p =r

beachchik4ever

This book is a great read--I'm half-way thru and hate to put it down, stayed up too late last night reading it, yawnnnnnnn.........

Merchant I am going to check out your recommendations. Thank you!

Rob_The_Pom

I've just finished Maximum City, and I think it is a truly outstanding work of literature. He doesn't try and capture Bombay as a whole, that is not his intention. I think he wanted to show dimensions of the city that the ordinary person is unlikely to have had much contact with (certainly the hitmen and script writing). Yes, much of this is the 'shady' side of life and under-belly of the city, but this makes so much more interesting reading than middle-class suburbia. The book is also a study of the author's own addiction to the parts of the city that he believes he should not really be involved in.
As Merchant said, he doesn't write for an uneducated audience and that makes the work all the punchy and fast-flowing. I can't comment on what Bongdongs says about certain parts being potentially offensive, as that is outside my own sphere of knowledge. The book though wasn't designed to be a complete picture of the city.
Overall, I couldn't recommend this book highly enough. Mehta writes beautifully, and with envious clarity. But then, you wouldn't expect a book that gets nominated for the Pulitzer prize to be rubbish would you?

Oh, and I'm also reading Shantaram at the moment, whilst this is entertaining it is not in the same league as Maximum City.

__________________
The solution to your troubles is at the bottom of a glass