Aawarapan etc... Review on Johnny Gone Down - Karan Bajaj

After giving much thought, I am trying the 2nd time to write a review about a novel. I loved reading fiction novels, but never wrote reviews about them. This time it's the "Johnny Gone Down" by Karan Bajaj, his 2nd novel. For the starters, its an average book, with nothing to boast about but okay, can give a read for engraving plot. Yes, again Karan's hero is the superhero as his first book, and that seems a bit un-natural. Seriously speaking, his first novel (Keep Off the Grass) was the trash, and first I searched some courage, and then I read the novel, but read it very fast.

Synopsis: Nikhil Arya was the main lead who was pulled into deterioted situations in Cambodia, by his friend Sam for a small vacation trip. But Cambodia is at war, and they got entangled with it, and our Hero, Nikhil saved Sam by giving him his passport, but himself get caught by the rebel army, and get freed by a heroic attempt after 2 years, but in the process lost his one hand. Then he went to Thailand, and become monk, and worshipped Buddha for many years, then one fine morning he got into the drug mafia of Brazil, save their boss, and become his left hand cum accountant. Then he marry a model and have a kid. Then again other druglords follows him, and he fled to US, and there he helped a hard-worker from MIT to develop a fully fledged video game and become the millionaire. In the end, everything falls in its place. Lo! I forgot to mention, that he too graduated from the MIT.

So, did you get a feel of so many movies inter-mingled here, yes, so this is the main negative and positive point of the novel. No original story here, its totally filmy, but hey! today everybody's loves reading only these kind of stories, and no serious literature remains. Our hero, Mr. Nikhil Arya aka Johnny, is a superhero, he failed at every incident and in all different countries we get to visit in the novel, but he was the one who found the solution to come out of it, although he didnt know anything about that field, so unusual! He survives a genocide on his own, become the best Buddhist monk, become the left hand of a drug mafia, and even develop a Video Game when he didn't even knows A B or 'C'. Yes, the language of novel is simple, and it engraves the reader when he opts to go on the journey across the world. And it is a much better book than the first novel of Karan. After reading that book (Keep Off the Grass), I was very scared over the 2nd book, since I've already bought it before reading the 1st one. But it's cover-page lures me to read it.

The book is available at mere price of Rs. 90-100. I got it at a special price of Rs. 65 through pre-booking at Flipkart.com. You can opt for this book, if you don't have any other options available or if you have already bought it. I will never recommend "Keep off the Grass" to anybody, but can give this a try for a movie timepass.

Ruchir.