The Comeback- a Novel is more like a novella. Not too long, with an easy-flowing style, and an uncomplicated storyline, it can be read while waiting at a doctor’s clinic, or at the airport.
Drawing you into two very different worlds, writer Annie Zaidi gives you an interesting glimpse into the lives of small-town drama enthusiasts as well as of the strife and struggle of those trying to get a toe-hold in the big, bad world of Bollywood. Asghar Abbasi and Jaun Kazim were two college buddies in a little-known town, Baansa, situated somewhere between Lucknow and Bareilly, in UP. Asghar was passionate about theatre and founded a drama club with next-to-nothing resources; and Jaun acted in the plays that Asghar directed.
Unlike Asghar, for Jaun theatre was a stepping stone to films. So, soon after his portfolio had seven plays to its credit, he moved to Mumbai to enrol for a diploma- course in acting. Like countless starry-eyed youngsters who come to this city with dreams of being the next Shah Rukh or Irrfan Khan, Jaun, re-named himself as John K., and hung around for fifteen, struggling years on the fringes of an amorphous film industry. Bit parts on television and stage, radio jingles and sundry jobs financed his cheap gin, daily meals and travel expenses for countless auditions.
And then, one day, he finally cracked it. Getting a break on the large screen as an unattractive, fortyish guy with a mean streak, John K. became an overnight sensation. Occasionally, to lend themselves legitimacy as meaningful mediums of entertainment, Bollywood and its appendage, the gossip magazines, make ordinary-looking actors into stars. So, John K. made it to the cover of Buzz, a film magazine that did an elaborate photo shoot exaggerating his unflattering features with contrived lighting. “Unwashed, unbrushed, almost sexy,” relates Zaidi, in Jaun’s voice, with more than a dollop of satire, about how John K. appeared on the cover.
Zaidi is also deliciously satirical about the journo who interviewed him. Sitting with a cultivated air of casualness on the floor, and a cultivated expression of surprise at everything he uttered, she egged John on, into revealing all the non-glamorous aspects of his life in small-town Baansa. John K. made terrific copy! He narrated how his friend Asghar discovered his acting talent and gave him breaks in theatre, how he, in turn, climbed a drainpipe to stand on a window-ledge to help Asghar in his Economics exam… John K. prattled on, little realising how all this would affect Asghar’s career at the bank where he worked, far away from the luring lights of tinsel town.
What follows, thereafter, is a tale of soured friendships, bruised egos, fluctuating fortunes, starting from scratch, and, of course, drama in every which way. An award-winning dramatist, Zaidi has seen the world of theatre, up-close and up-front, and is clearly partial to it. Her descriptions of rehearsals, the shoe-string budgets, the uncompromising determination to stage quality stuff, make for inspiring reading.
This is a book that many from the world of grease-paint and arc lights will identify with. Others will enjoy a story, well-told.
Book: The Comeback – A Novel
Author: Annie Zaidi
Publisher: Aleph Book Company
Pages: 192
Price: ₹599
