A seedy saga of coke, lust and crime

A film star falls in love with a journalist, and is willing to stake her marriage and comfort to be with him. Sounds far-fetched? In Mumbai, the land of celluloid dreams, anything is possible. And it is this quality of imagination that the author, Bilal Siddiqui, exploits to the hilt in his novella.

The Stardust Affair is a page-turner that screams conspiracy from the word go. Avinash, a crime reporter, who manoeuvres the local train every day, hoping to hear something that could give him goose pimples, is hurled into the middle of a former actress’ troubled marriage and a larger police-press cooperation to put an end to the reign of a drug lord over Mumbai. The Mumbai Press Club, the police station and his office, form the coordinates of Avinash’s existence.

His sole aim in life is to tell the story of his policeman father Jaywant Pawar, on whom he models Jaywant Hegde, the protagonist of his second book, A City in Flames, based on the November 26 Mumbai terror attacks.

Surprisingly, Avinash calls his life as a crime journalist drab, when the job actually gives him a chance to accomplish his dreams — to meet a star and, most importantly, write a book. It is his mentor, and senior at the Mumbai Sun, Hamza, who helps Avinash land his second book deal, which comes with a rider: He has to ghost-write the autobiography of Parineeti Deb Ahuja, or Pari, a once-popular actress.

Pari’s most compelling performance was in a movie awkwardly titled Meri Amaanat, which denoted a series of coincidences — it was her first lead role and she fell for her future husband after he fulfilled his promised to give her the role. Even her bungalow was named after the film!

During his interviews with Pari, Avinash is flattered by her attention. Her tendency to lie to her controlling husband and his bodyguards, just to be with him, makes Avinash feel special, drawing him towards her.

However, a meeting with Gupta — who was an assistant director on Meri Amaanat — arranged by Hamza, makes Avinash realize that there may be more to Pari’s story than she reveals. Gupta hints that she did not land the role on her own, implying that bigger interests — read: the underworld — was involved in the making of the film.

As Avinash poses some hard questions to Pari, she plays on her own vulnerability to wriggle out of the situation. Avinash falls for it. He feels a need to rescue her. What ensues is a series of awkwardly-worded, cocaine-fuelled sexcapades between Avinash and Pari.

Meanwhile, Avinash’s mentor Hamza is planning his next story with his cop friend Siddhesh, to bust a cocaine consignment, and even accompanies the police on a Nigerian gang bust.

Pari’s husband, Rocky, is a cold-hearted businessman, whose industrialist image is a cover for his more sinister drug business, which he runs in partnership with his Dubai-based boss Dilsher Ali. Rocky does not believe in leaving any loose ends and bumps off those disloyal to him. One such murder, described in the beginning of the book, presumably to make the narrative circular, is later revealed to have taken place when Pari and Avinash are travelling to Dubai. The guy who was bumped off was a bodyguard of Pari’s, meant to keep an eye on Avinash. Instead, he spies on Rocky and Pari, to get leads on possible drug connections, and gets busted.

Avinash is portrayed as a naïve character, who gets played by those around him. Be it Hamza or Pari, he is shown to be the giver in all relationships. The author tries to portray him with shades of grey, when in reality, Avinash is a white character.

The truth of Avinash’s ghost-writing project is made amply clear by the storyline, but the question is: Would you buy the elaborate web of relationships and motives that this project entails? The author reposes immense faith in his reader’s imagination to make this potboiler seem plausible.

Ishaan is a writer and reviewer based in Delhi