I completed reading this book nearly two months back … Was still trying to decide if I should write a review or not. The book is about Dawood Ibrahim’s rise as a Don and how different events in his life impacted him. Hussain Zaidi, the author who is a journalist seems to have great access to the gangs and Dawood in particular … Maybe because of his work as an investigative journalist.
I was deeply disturbed as I read the book … A boy born to an honest upright policeman takes to crime and becomes a Don that the whole world seems to dread. The book doesn’t offer any insight into how Dawood’s father felt, except the first time Dawood and his brother commit a crime, he beats them within an inch of their lives. Am sure his father didn’t set a wrong example for his sons.. But the allure of money and power seemed to hold a higher sway over Dawood. What if his father was paid really well and they lived a comfortable life – would Dawood still have taken to crime ?
I dread to think of the examples that non-stop-celebrity-chasing news shows set for young children. Sanjay Dutt living life king size is a more alluring example than the hardworking newspaper boy who makes his way to IIM. Salman Khan getting bail almost instantly is a show of strength that’s hugely alluring to a young kid, than Bhagat Singh going to the gallows for defying the British. The message we seem to be giving is – find an easy way to make loads of money because that gives you power and the means don’t matter :(:(.
Dawood turns the tables on the Mumbai cops who use him to clear up the gangs in Mumbai but he uses them to eliminate his rivals. Dangerous man to cross. There was one quote of Napoleon Hill that Zaidi used to chilling effect – “Necessity may be the mother of invention but it’s also the father of crime”…. Anyway, read the book to know about the integrity of Haji Mastan and the dare devilry of some of the Gang lords. Its a bit laborious to read, like watching an accurate and real life documentary. We are so used to films making things larger than life. I also realised many of the scenes in different “Gang” based movies were based on real life incidents which are recounted in this book.
I chose to write this review today as its Father’s Day and am thinking of Dawood’s father, and Dawood as a father. Does he think of the fathers of those that have to be killed in his line of duty ? And does he think of the day he will meet his real father, his God … Wonder what he will say to him.