Handa Ka Funda Think Outside The Book

Review of The Mine by Arnab Ray – Disappointed

I was waiting to read ‘The Mine’ since I first heard about it. I read Arnab’s blog regularly and have read ‘May I Hebb Your Attention Pliss’. MIHYAP was witty and showcased why we all love greatbong so much. He could express what being a 80s-90s kid in India meant – and he did that really well. But sadly, desperately sadly, he cannot write a psychological thriller – if that is what ‘The Mine’ is trying to be. It is horribly clichéd, boring, formulaic, etc.

The book begins with a prologue, which is very much like every Hollywood thriller movie that you have ever seen – a sex sequence gone wrong and a dead-guy at the end of the prologue. I could actually imagine the screen going black and the title ‘THE MINE’ in big red font popping on the screen with a loud background score. The next few pages introduce the main characters of the book in a Guns-of-Navaronesque sequence where every character has a speciality. I know. I know. You have seen it in many other films from Jurassic Park to the pilot that Mia Wallace starred in.

When I started reading the book I wanted to like it. I wanted to recommend the book and shout out to all the snobs that there are ‘young-indians’ who can write popular books that are brilliant. By the time I was done with the first 30 pages my goals were changed. Now, I did not want to hate the book and just wanted to finish it in the hope that it would become better but sadly that was not the case. The book kept on getting harder to finish. You could actually guess that there was something wrong with each and every character and the shock-value was reduced when author used same-old formulas and references to ‘Memento-Mori’ and ‘American Beauty’. I do not know why, but the whole underground setting with ancient structures reminded me of everything from Crichton’s Sphere to the Salman-Sheeba-AmritaSingh starrer Suryavanshi. If you have seen any part from the ‘Saw’ series or even a trailer for Hostel, the gore in the book will not be able to shock you – which seem to be the sole intent of it being there. There are also lots of parallels between each character being punished for his/her wrongdoing in a different fashion, an idea that seems like a straight lift from se7en.

By the time, I came to the end I was hoping at least the there will be no loose ends. But again, Arnab sticking to formulas choose not to explain things completely. He decided that it would be OKAY, as it was OKAY to not know what was in the briefcase in Pulp Fiction or what Scarlett said to Bill. The ending, which I am sure some people will find classic, was again on expected lines with the sole intent of packing a final punch. It failed to do so to someone who has seen enough films and read enough books to enjoy MIYAHP. I was thoroughly disappointed, not because I had wasted my money and time on ‘The Mine’, but because I had wanted to show this book to my friends and say – ‘Non-literary people can also write good books.’ Unfortunately, I will not be able to say that.