If I Pretend I Am Sorry Book Review

Title : If I Pretend I Am Sorry! Will You Pretend And Forgive Me?

Author: Prashant Sharma

ISBN: 978-93-80349-381

Publisher: Srishti Publication

Paperback: 215 pages

Published: 07 July 2011

Subject: Fiction                                               

Excerpt:

I was sitting in a room with four of the most dangerous men in Mumbai. All four had a gun in their hands. I has a single malt in mine. And I was the one who was going to dictate the terms.” Rajvir Singh

“That day, I understood the importance of money. That day, I got a new reason to live. That day, I knew what I had to do in life and for what. I had to kill, and I had to kill for money.” Ranvijay Singh

I felt relieved, I felt scared, I felt guilty. I had finally made the deal. I had paid for my first murder.” Viraj Singh

If I Pretend I Am Sorry! Will You Pretend And Forgive Me?  by Prashant Sharma is a mini suspense thriller of sorts. Written on the basis of individual characters point of view, the book vividly describes the journey of three characters who are all related to each other, but not for once in the book ever all the characters meet together and you have to leaf through this entire pacy thriller to un-ravel the connection between them.

For one’s born and brought up on Mumbai’s underworld stories you can relate many of the incidents described in the book from the unification of four warring small don’s to the cases of protection money paid by big businessmen to someone trying to become the un-disputed king of Mumbai by not hesitating to even eliminate his own boss. The story begins in Mumbai, comes to Punjab, comes to Mumbai again, sets forth to Delhi and then finally settles in the big bad world of Mumbai.

Coming to the characters in brief, first Rannvijay Singh aka Naqaab, the willy and cunning among them, who never leave any trace in his murder sites and which always seemed some kind of an accident, and had his own way of dealing with his boss. Although his maternal lineage was of royal blood, but till the very end he never knew who his father was or his maternal links. In his childhood, he saw himself living in pavements with his mother and stealing small things for survival and then going on to become the undisputed king of Mumbai one day. Somewhere you would see shades of D in him.

Rajvir Singh had to undergo the turmoil’s of partition, but he was the one who was brave and also had luck by his side and intelligent of the lot. From the dream weddings which ultimately led him to amass a lot of fortunes, he goes onto become one of the leading dons of Mumbai. He somehow resembled a bit of Haji Mastan and unified four small dons fighting with each other and held a yearly meetup at one of the leading hotels in Mumbai, which ultimately will also unravel a lot of secrets in the very end, but in a way kept the biggest secret to himself.

Viraj Singh, a pampered boy being brought up in a rich family and studying in a boarding school and later in Europe and USA was the confused one, who never was sure of himself. He even dumped his new found love in his marriage day which eventually also would lead to his own downfall. He is also the one who is almost entirely responsible to kill his own family as also his befriended lovers and ultimately charts his own death.

The protagonists take you through a roller coaster ride of love, murders and betrayals.  The books also portrays the lives of the rich and the mighty very subtly who loves to splurge but has their own sorts of in-securities and how they themselves in a way create those. The book describes the journey of Rannvijay to glory by using his wit and how Rajvir and Viraj both in a way helps him to achieve it and also provide gentle hints of how the merciless underworld operates.

The book takes you through the villas of the rich and mighty as well as the narrow alleys and bars of Mumbai, where the difference between life and death is like only a matter of one night stands. Today's friend is your tomorrows enemy. Here money and a few moments of pleasure only matters. Next night is a brand new night. 

The narrative mode used by the author is good where the three different protagonists tell their own stories but it is at the only end where you’ll realize the connection between the characters. Only if they knew about it earlier, things could have been lot different. The writing is simple and easy to read. All in all a good read and you’ll not let putting the book down till you finish it.