Book Review: '60 Minutes' by Upendra Namburi

Upendra Namburi's '60 Minutes' is the second book of his triumvirate novels ('31' was his first). 

The story revolves around relationships, twisted morals, a world full of scheming people and of course the corporate rat race to reach the top.

While I did like the 'quotes', (if I can call them that) before the beginning of each chapter, somehow the book did not seem to be a page turner for me. Everytime I put the book down, it took me quite a while to want to pick up the book again and finish it off.

The plot is supposed to take place within an hour’s time, and is based on the events unfolding within that time. Understandably, there are several flashbacks which help reveal the background of many characters in the story.

Being set in Mumbai, there is a lot of masala which is added to the story, and (for me) a bit too many characters involved, making the story extremely chaotic and slightly difficult to keep track of. Agastya who is the main protagonist in the story shares the spotlight with two other folks – Maithili and Sailesh, who also play a pivotal role in the story, albeit, in the background.

Maithili, is introduced to the reader in the very first chapter as someone who seems to be suicidal, but later in the book, her story is revealed and she turns out to be Agastya’s extra-marital (secret) affair. Her character however, does come across as a strong, no-nonsense kind of woman who knows what she wants and how she’s going to get it.

Upendra has not steered away from corporate politics and that’s where Sailesh is introduced as Agastya’s former colleague and (now) fanatic competitor employed with a rival firm.

While Sailesh & Maithili add the excitement and thrill to the story, they definitely don’t make life easy for Agastya professionally as well as personally. While all the high intensity drama seems a little too unreal for ’60 Minutes’, it all seems like every character in the book is in a race for the survival of the fittest.

The book is marketed as a fast paced and a racy thriller, however, it seemed to be quite a drag and it took me a good seven days to finish, which is probably the longest I’ve ever taken. It failed to grip me as a reader and with all the chaos in the story, the ending turned out to be a big disappointment. 300+ pages seemed to be filled with nothing but a lot of word fillers and jargon which not everybody would be able to understand. While I understand that the background is required of every character and hence the flashback had to be a part of the story, a brief background  instead of a whole book on each character would have made this more fast paced.

At the end of it all, while Agastya and Sailesh (rivals throughout the story) were chilling at some fancy place and having their drinks, I happily whacked the book on my head and kept it aside.

Overall, the book was a let down.

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