|
 There's nothing like a nice little controversy to accompany the launch of a book. Especially if it comes in the form of a finger-wagging serial killer called Charles Sobhraj from a jail in Kathmandu.
But writer Farrukh Dhondy, who was in Bangalore to launch his latest book, The Bikini Murders, on Friday, insists that controversies don't sell books. "It would be better if there was a fatwa and people were specifically told to buy 20,000 copies of the book and burn it," he says, eyes twinkling and tongue firmly in cheek.
All through the book reading session at Reliance TimeOut and later, at an interview, Dhondy didn't seem unduly worried about Sobhraj's threat of making millions from the book by suing him in the UK. "It's very difficult to fight the case in the UK," says Dhondy. "The jury there won't even know where or what Tihar Jail is."
What's more, he's pretty sure neither Sobhraj nor his lawyers have read the book.
"They want to sue me only because I called it The Bikini Murders since that's how one newspaper headline described Sobhraj's crimes."
The line Dhondy and his publisher, HarperCollins, are taking is that the character is not Charles Sobhraj but Johnson Thhat. "If you say that I'm that character it means you're saying I did all that stuff...Charles Sobhraj says I've spoilt his reputation. He can't sue me for that.... There would be a problem if I said Nelson Mandela was a pickpocket!"
But the fact remains that there are far too many uncanny resemblances between Sobhraj and Thhat the Vietnam link, the French connection, Goa, Kathmandu.
Dhondy shrugs it off, saying they are just details.
Well, what's in a detail? The devil, Mr Dhondy? In this case, cooling his heels behind bars in Kathmandu?
There are lots of people in Kathmandu and Vietnam, says Dhondy. "Our lawyers are ready."
An encounter with Charles Sobhraj
To an audience question on Charles Sobhraj being charming, Farrukh Dhondy minces no words: "I DIDN'T find him charming." He recounts the time when Sobhraj called him at 2am from a London casino, asking him to get him out of the car park since he hadn't a cent on him. Dhondy lent him some money and "it's anyone's guess whether he paid me back," he said.
Dhondy turns to a thriller
Farrukh Dhondy says he was provoked by his literary agent who wanted a book on modern terrorism. "But I didn't want to examine the mind of a person who could commit acts of terror." Instead, he decided to turn his hand to a thriller and a cold-blooded serial killer. And no, he had no role in designing the cover, he told a curious member of the audience.
Wondering what the book is all about? Here's what the press release says:
In a Kathmandu casino, retired inspector Pradhan nabs the notorious serial-killer who has eluded him for 25 years. But did Pradhan just get lucky or is there a larger plan at work? Why would Thhat come to Nepal though he is wanted there for murder? What is the message he wants to get across to the American government?
Pradhan tries to piece the puzzle together from Thhat's account: his career in crime as a teenager in France; meeting his Indian father; being drawn into diamond smuggling; his 'chemistry' with the ravishing Ravina, with whom he drugged, robbed and killed tourists in Thailand and India before being caught. Did Thhat mastermind his own long imprisonment? And an international doublecross, involving the Taliban, his prison connections with terrorists, and the CIA? Has Thhat finally been made to pay or is he pulling off the biggest con of his life?
Wit and wisdom, served up Dhondy-style
Karna is the most enigmatic character in the Mahabharata, Arjuna is just James Bond.
(On his decision to write a play on Karna, Warrior of the Sun)
I once wrote a play called Bollocks and when the play was staged, the promotions read:
Presenting Farrukh Dhondy's Bollocks!
Indians have no sense of public space â they throw garbage on the streets, they piss, they shit. They are corrupt, they lie, cheat and are filthy. Anyone writing about all this will be called an anti-national. No one can write about it the way Vidia (Naipaul) does.
My first telephonic conversation with Charles Sobhraj went something like this:
CS: This is Charles Sobhraj.
FD: The serial killer?
CS: You could put it like that!
juliana.lazarus@mid-day.com | 
