“Who is bigger than the king?” You stare at the statement on the back page of the book. If you have read S. Hussain Zaidi’s previous book on the underworld of Mumbai, you realise who he is speaking about. After the success of Dongri to Dubai: Six Decades of Mumbai Mafia and Byculla to Bangkok, he is back with his latest anthem on Mumbai underworld’s biggest and most hated don, Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar or just Dawood Ibrahim. From Dubai to Karachi: The Dawood Saga Continues is Zaidi’s most ambitious mafia saga in quite some time.
The book’s sheer size speaks volumes about Dawood’s journey from Mumbai to Dubai to his final known yet unconfirmed location — Pakistan. Other stories come into the picture about Dawood. The usual big names jump from the pages — Chhota Rajan, Chhota Shakeel, Tiger Memom, Yakub Memon, Iqbal Mirchi, Pakistan, ISI, etc.
Zaidi is a master storyteller of the underworld thanks to his prolific journalistic career covering crime, especially in Mumbai. From Dubai to Karachi tells all the stories in a format that keeps you engaged. Zaidi manages to weave stories as if you are in the middle of the drama. You keep flicking the pages to find out what happened next.
You have to give it to Zaidi on how he has covered many of those touched by Dawood directly or directly, be it gangsters or reporters. You see the highs and lows of the likes of Chhota Rajan, Dawood’s friend turned foe to J. Dey paying the price of covering Rajan. You also meet Yakub Memom, the ill-fated brother of the 1992 Mumbai bomb blast kingpin Tiger Memom. Zaidi has written in detail regarding Yakub’s involvement in the blast case leading up to his hanging in 2015 on his birthday.
The biggest expose (or known tales if you read the news) are the stories of how the Pakistani government, big names, army and ISI are involved in the 1992 Mumbai blasts and more. You travel with Dawood as he goes to become the master player in Pakistan. Names like Imran Khan, Asif Ali Zardari, Javed Miandad and Malik Riaz come up and you are left with your mouth wide open.
What is different this time with From Dubai to Karachi is that we meet Zaidi more and also learn his way of getting stories from sources. He meets super cops like Neeraj Kumar, who have been key players in solving some big crimes, and his sources, who have some insider tales to narrate. Zaidi has spoken about the side of the law that is good, bad, and ugly.
The question at the end is: Is From Dubai to Karachi: The Dawood Saga Continues to be a worthy successor to Dongri to Dubai? The answer is a resounding yes. You might feel that you have seen everything in his previous books. But the charm of S. Hussain Zaidi is he tells and retells stories that engage you and speak of the horrific nature of walking down the criminal path.
Book: From Dubai to Karachi: The Dawood Saga Continues
Author: S. Hussain Zaidi
Publisher: Ebury Press
Pages: 504
Price: Rs 499
