And Anurag Kashyap is buying the idea. In his debut book, The Diary of an Unreasonable Man, Madhav Mathur devises bizarre solutions for common societal problems. And they are soon going on-screen
And Anurag Kashyap is buying the idea. In his debut book, The Diary of an Unreasonable Man, Madhav Mathur devises bizarre solutions for common societal problems. And they are soon going on-screen
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To shame is the best way to blame, is Madhav Mathur's idiosyncratic ideology. The banker by day and writer by night, bang in the middle of his twenties, believes in anything but the midway. In his debut novel, The Diary of an Unreasonable Man, he proves that nothing but extremity works today. Especially when it comes to gunning down great social evils.u00a0 But no, that doesn't have to do with terror. Face painting is good enough. The Guide caught him for a chat.
How unreasonable are you?
Pretty. But not as unreasonable as my protagonist and his friends.
So, they are a zanier form of you. In what way?
To quote an instance, they are tired of the way the government is handling the prostitution racket. To them, shutting down establishments isn't the solution. So, they devise a plan to target the real culprits: the clients.
They pose as sellers of a unique invention aphrodisiacal paan to pimps, and there product is a hit. What the consumers don't know is that the paan contains a skin-colouring compound that's going to turn them green the next day.
The following morning, they place huge advertisements in leading papers that talk of the green-faced monsters and why they look that way. So, there's no escape.
Surely that won't work for real.
I researched if such a skin-colouring edible compound exists, and yes, it'll work. Ditto with their ways. My protagonists are extremists, but they know violence has no value. The scum of the earth, who blow up cars and people, only end up being a reason for body counts. Their message is lost. But if one is shamed, chances are, he learns his lesson. It's all a matter of reactivity. If you do something unusual, the impact can be huge, depending on how outrageous and relevant it is.
Is it gup-shup with fun-loving friends that inspires you to come up with such crazy stuff?
No, I work alone. I've been writing since I was eight, and so, the thoughts are a slow burn. I've grown up seeing problems of environment, corruption, the forced class divide. My premise may be ordinary, but I'll always bring things to book in a fun way, even if the problem itself isn't other-worldly. This book also brings out the darker part of myself. The extremist side.
How did Anurag Kashyap come across the script?
It was on a journey from Mumbai to Pune for a film fest. I got in touch with him through a popular movie blog, Passionforcinema, after I fell in love with Black Friday and No Smoking. In the car, he read my then unpublished story, while I went through his script for Dev D. We both liked each other's work. And he said, yes, I'll do it.
That was a long time ago. You wanted to explore the movie prospects before the book itself.
I always like to keep my work-in-progress folder heavier than the done one. Also, I'm into filmmaking myself, so yes, the prospect of a movie got me excited.
But you know what happens when a book becomes a film. Are you ready to sacrifice your story?
Anurag puts a lot of thought in his work. I am confident he'll do justice to my script. Improvis-ation only does good to any creative piece, and I will be part of the production process.
Given a chance, would you want to give your college-kid-isque theories a try?
I invented them. Anyone's welcome to try them out. They'd work like nothing else, and be loads of fun. I promise.
The plot
Pranav Kumar is:
(a) An advertising executive
(b) An aspiring writer
(c) An anarchist
(d) A fugitive from the Mumbai Police
(e) All of the above
Pranav Kumar has had enough. He's sick and tired of being a corporate drone convincing people that their lives are meaningless without the newest product he's peddling. He hates that commercialism is the newu00a0 mantra and people actually believe that you are what you own. He and his pals, the Anarchists of Mumbai, take over a TV station, expose an environmental scam, strike out at patrons of brothels, sabotage a glitzy fashion show, and paint-bomb a local train. But doing good comes at a price.
Extract
"What about the paans," he said (the pimp). "Why do I need a paan store inside my building, there are so many on the street."
"That's where you're mistaken, sir. They are special paans designed to increase the pleasure of your clients. If you want details, I can pass you a brochure."
"this would definitely boost my business more."
"It would also give you that competitive advantage, by improving the quality and diversity of the service you
provide," I chirped helpfully.
"So do we have a deal." We already knew the answer.
An Unreasonable Man published by Penguin is available at leading bookstores for Rs 199
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