Much can be forgiven, especially a writer who comes up with the deadliest name in all crime fiction: Deadlyappa. And then, not content with that, creates Head Nurse Kolaveri, known to her juniors as Kolaveri Didi. It’s been three days — 72 hours — since I turned the last page of Zac O’Yeah’s second (and so far last) book in his Mr Majestic series, and still, even though in this time I had much that wipes the smile off my face to contend with (disappearing plumber, vanished doodhwalla, absconding dhobi), the words “Deadlyappa” and “Kolaveri Didi” frequently popped into my head and had me rolling on the floor laughing again.
Mr Majestic is Hari Majestic, who was found as a baby under the cheap seats at the Majestic cinema on Bengaluru’s C.D. Road. Now a reasonably successful tout and digital conman (he is the Indian representative of a Nigerian bank official), he makes his first appearance in Mr Majestic: The Tout of Bengaluru. But when he tries to pull off his various cons on two particular tourists in Bengaluru, online retribution and some very rowdy offline elements follow.
Who are these tourists, the Swedish man and the American woman looking for her missing adopted sister from India? On one hand they don’t seem to be together, but on the other they do seem to be linked. What has happened to Jane’s adopted sister, a woman who went to Mumbai on what turned out to be a fake scholarship to a fake Bollywood school, and then wound up in Bengaluru?
Hari: Hero for Hire by Zac O’Yeah Pan Macmillan, Rs 350 each
And why has Hari Majestic, the tout of Bengaluru, suddenly decided to become some sort of private detective trying to track down Jane’s sister? Why are those rowdies to end all rowdies trying to eliminate Mr Majestic? Everything is confused, not to mention confusing and Hari needs all the help he can get from his friends Doc, a cybercafé owner, Triplex, a pirated DVD shop owner with a taste for XXX-rated films, and A.C. Gaadi, the Michael Jackson karaoke-ing baap of all auto drivers in Bengaluru, if not actually all of India.
There’s a lot of blood in this book, particularly Hari’s. He’s pounded to pulp every few pages, sometimes to such an extent that it’s hard to believe he’ll survive. Take courage and carry on, though, because the existence of a sequel clearly indicates that he makes it. Meanwhile, you, the reader, may not be quite as lucky because though this book is funny, the plot is so convoluted that it’s hard to keep up with what’s going on, and when you finally get to the end, the only emotion you feel is relief.
Take heart though, because O’Yeah manages to control the many possible tendrils of his plot in the sequel, Hari: A Hero for Hire. In this book, Hari has decided to stop touting and start detecting, so he sets up his own investigative agency, with his old pals Doc, Triplex and A.C. Gaadi as associates. Hari’s first commission is the case of the wife who’s too happy — no matter what her husband does to circumscribe her life, she continues to be the perfect wife, loving and joyful.
Clearly, thinks her husband, Bhascar with a C (as dictated by numerology), she’s having an affair. This should be a simple case, but, thanks to Triplex, it goes haywire and almost before Hari can blink, he has Deadlyappa on his tail, and Head Nurse Kolaveri Didi waiting for him at the multi-specialty medical facility formerly known as Sickly Hospital.
It’s actually a good thing that Hari’s at the hospital, because he can legitimately go undercover and investigate his old schoolteacher’s claim that there’s something fishy about this hospital formerly known as Sickly. Certainly, the hospital’s owner, Dr Viral, is not as he seems, and what is that sinister-looking foreign doctor doing there?
Ably assisted by Doc and Gaadi (Triplex has been sent to Mysore in disgrace), Hari cracks the case — and finds love and also the mother who left him under the cheap seats at the Majestic cinema all those years ago. So many accomplishments for one brand new detective. Too bad it earns him no money. And where exactly is Deadlyappa?
In his Mr Majestic series (where’s book No. 3? Someone call Hari to investigate!), Zac O’Yeah proves beyond doubt that he knows his Bengaluru — and possibly even his India. Hari, Triplex, Doc and Gaadi are real people, even if they’re somewhat less toxic than they perhaps would be in real life. (Gaadi, in particular, is a joy. The next time I attempt to get an auto in Bengaluru, I may beam rather than feel bitter.) The jokes come non-stop — from the “had food?” greeting to the names of people and places to the hysteria that Sandalwood heroes can create among their fans to that old Nigerian bank account scam with a twist to much more than I can list here.
But in the first book, the jokes seemed to guide the plot, rather than the other way around, so that I quickly became bored and had to drag myself to the end. And based on that, I probably would not have picked up the second book if I hadn’t had to review it — but fortunately, I did, and loved it. My advice to you? Begin reading the Mr Majestic series with Hero for Hire. You’ll find that much can be forgiven its writer.
Kushalrani Gulab is a freelance editor and writer who dreams of being a sanyasi by the sea
