The Extraordinary Life of Max Bulandi by Sidharth Singh
Buy here: https://shorturl.at/oefNK
My take on the book:
Nirvana feels lost after breakup with his long-term girlfriend Naz; his career as a journalist is not taking off and his addiction to drugs has resurfaced after Naz left. When his land lady brings down old magazines to be sold off, Nirvana picks an issue of Junior Standard magazine from the 1970s. An article about the contest India Beat’70 and one of the participating bands The Flow, the rock band that got sudden fame and the band’s singer-songwriter Max Bulandi intrigue Nirvana.
When Nirvana mentions about The Flow to a friend who is part of a rock band in current day Mumbai, he ends up meeting Harry Mulani, who was leading the rock band Atomic Bliss in the 70s but is now settled in advertising field. Harry shared info he had about rock bands from that era which inspires Nirvana to travel to Kolkata on his own expenses, to find more about Max’s life. From Mumbai to Kolkata to Shillong to Banaras, Nirvana goes on an incredible journey to know the enigma that is Max Bulandi.
The story has a backdrop that is often not explored in Indian fiction. The life story of a man narrated from the point of view of those who knew him from close quarters — his band mates Jimmy Stewart and Jo Nongrem, his ex-girlfriend Belinda Watson-Scott, journalist Timmy Mathur who interviewed The Flow, Guddu ji who was his childhood friend. Interestingly, each of them narrates a particular phase of Max’s life and with every phase the reader will be intrigued and invested in knowing more about Max.
As Jimmy Stewart says to Nirvana — it’s all about sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll. However, the story also captures in parallel the political and social circumstances of each of these decades in India — the 50s right after Independence filling people with hope, the 60s that saw the advent of rock music and drugs, the 70s when there was unrest and subsequent Emergency. The author also subtly hints how Nirvana’s life is similar to Max’s life though both lived in different times. Max’s life engrosses the reader so much that towards the end, Nirvana feels like a side character and no longer of interest to the reader.
The author also uses metaphors of the places that Max lived in/travelled to and how they relate to that particular phase of his life; Banaras is the city of creation and destruction, Kolkata the city of rebelling against the powers. Max’s journey in the late 60s through Amsterdam to Istanbul to Kathmandu to Kolkata via Goa is fascinating. Max is a hero and a non-hero at the sametime, his charisma is what pulled people to him from his childhood.
From Makrand to Maximus Boulandie to Max Bulandi to Buland Jaan to Bulu Da to Comrade Bu to Makrand, this is indeed story of the extraordinary life of one man.
My rating:
5/5.
This review is part of the Blogchatter Book Review Program.