Racy Colors - Color Me Rich By Mohan Deep

If ever there was a moment in the future that I had to go off because of boredom, off books too big to finish, I would rush back to Color Me Rich to rid myself of that feeling.  Though it is an inappropriate comparison I could not help feeling that I was back to reading my favorite James Hadley Chases in my younger days. There was a hurried speed in the events. Extremely pacy, almost breathless the narration rarely stops to give the characters any lazy space. Either they do their bit or else they are out of the frame.

Mohandeep one of the most colourful of writers from his days in journalism and controversial writing history thereafter, presents an original unpredictable setting for a story that begins with an artist and a painter Akash Saigal being cleared of any suspicion in the mysterious death of his wife artist and socialite Zenobia.  Just a couple of pages into the plot and the author is already telling you about the core of the plot and how the central characters who are etched out before you will end up. You think it’s pretty gutsy to let go of the heart of the plot but the author has a lot of surprises up his sleeve.

The story makes you gasp as it was just recently where a similar circumstance played out in real life with an artist being questioned by the law for being allegedly implicit in the murder of his famous other half. There are no surprises then that the author gets popped with the question of whether it was inspired or was there a coincidence. Weird because the book released almost at the same time of the incident and besides crediting Mohan’s intuitive sense of story telling there can be nothing to it. But the curiosity should help the sales

Mohan is quite at ease describing the protagonist’s younger days at the art school and scripts the atmosphere quite realistically. He does have an innate view on the conversations in the canteen of a drawing school. He creates interesting characters in the other love interest Suma as also the main protagonist’s support system Pran.

Mohan almost etches out characters like he were writing for a film script. So it is not surprising that people see a movie evolving out of this book.

What I would have asked for more was if he had fleshed out the narration more detailed even if irritatingly so. It was like I was on a local train with multiple trains to change one after the other from different platforms. A run read. But this is also the strength of the book as it never bores you.

Anyone picking up this book for a movie will undoubtedly see drama in between many interludes ready to be enacted.

I would call it a Karjat CST book. You would not want to get off till you finish it.  Try it!