Author: Vikram Chandra
Rating: 5/10
Genre: Crime/Mystery
Sacred Games is a grandiose,
pompous, and a highly embellished story about a Sikh Inspector in Bombay,
Sartaj Singh, and his colleagues who are investigating the circumstances
leading up to the death of the leader of the G-company, Ganesh Gaitonde, and
the subsequent aftermath of it. Gaitonde is an unwitting accomplice in a ‘sacred’
game which threatens to wipe out Bombay from the face of India, so life can
start afresh.
Written by Vikram Chandra(brother-in-law
of the acclaimed Bollywood director Vidhu Vinod Chopra), tries hard, very hard,
to go the Shantaram route. But it fails miserably. Chandra is a master
storyteller and styles his characters with exquisite craft. But, everything
converges on aggrandization of Bollywood, Bombay mafia and especially the
skill(or the absence of it) of the Bombay Police, covered with a thinly veiled
veneer of philosophical pretense. Read it. Get frustrated. And tear out your
hair for reading it in the first place.