Vikas Swarup's - Q & A

Genre : Fiction
Rating : 3.5 / 5

When a colleague mentioned that an interesting movie (Slumdog millionaire) is coming up based on a book (Viaks Swarup’s Q & A), I had made a mental note of ordering this book before I watch the movie.

After a long time I was reading a non-Disney book ( ;) ) so was excited about it. The story is about an orphan, Ram Mohommad Thomas, who wins the real-life show – Who Will Win a Billion? Considering the facts that this oddly named boy is not well educated and/or is not updated with any sort of current affairs, his triumph comes as a surprise to everyone including the producer / director of the show. The people from the show want to believe that he has cheated and hand him over to the local authorities who plan on unleashing brutal means to know the reality. Fortunately a lawyer takes in charge of his case and digs out how Thomas is able to answer all the twelve questions correctly.

Each chapter of the book is a story behind the correct answer to the quiz question. It is Ram’s life that has educated him enough to answer the questions fittingly. He is shown as a orphan, servant in a Australian’s house, a confidante to bollywood actress, a loyal friend, caring brother, tour guide, a traveler, bartender, lover of a prostitute. He doesn’t have much knowledge but luckily in the show he is asked the questions which he has answers of.

The book as a whole is interesting and the story altogether has a clever plot. The answers to the questions are not the chief points in the stories but they are just the minute details that would have gone unrecognized otherwise. So at times it is tad unbelievable to accept that fact that Ram remembers the answers to such questions at the tense moment of the game show. The book is a sure page-turner!

The initial part of the book has good deal of unnecessary molestation scenes which made me loath this book. I had earnest desire to leave it half-read. But in the hope of things getting better I kept reading. I liked the way it ended. The book doesn’t offer anything to learn as such but I cannot complain as I was warned the same by the book’s online-reviews. You won’t miss anything in life if you do not read it. So indulge yourself if you are one of first-book-then-movie types!