Sacred Games: A Novel (P.S.) - Vikram Chandra

Winner of the Hutch Crossword Book Award 2006 for Best Work in English Fiction, Sacred Games is a thriller crime mystery novel from Vikram Chandra. This book has been immensely popular over the years, resulting in a dedicated following. It is Chandra's second novel and his third work of fiction that has also been adapted into a Netflix series. The writer of the book - Vikram Chandra, is an Indian-American writer currently doing creative writing and works as a journalist, independent software engineer, and consultant.

Quick Synopsis

Vikram Chandra's novel takes you deep into Inspector Sartaj Singh's life, as well as Ganesh Gaitonde's criminal underworld. The story is about loyalty and betrayal, terrible violence, and an astonishing modern city with its dark side. Sacred Games draws inspiration from nineteenth-century literature, mystery novels, Chandra's own life, and research on the streets of Mumbai.

Review

Throughout Vikram Chandra's episodic novel, two opposing characters take on the fates of Mumbai in all of its seedy glory. A jaded Sikh policeman, Sartaj Singh, first appears in the story "Kama," and a famous Hindu Bhai, Ganesh Gaitonde, who duped celebrities and bankrolled politicians, and whose daily return was greater than corporate incomes.

The jaded Sartaj has divorced, is weary, and has resigned himself to a life allowing bribery and police brutality to flourish. When Gaitone commits his first murder as a young man, he is hungry for power and wealth. Unlike Sartaj, who is ambivalent about his choices in life. As the novel opens, Gaitonde taunts Sartaj from inside his shell-like bunker, taunting him to come out.

In his first-person narration, Gaitonde lulls the reader with a deeper understanding of human nature. And he tells 1,001 tales of his rise to power. Like how he collects men, money, and fame, creates a movie star, falls in love with her, infiltrates Bollywood, and works for the Indian government. He matches wits with his Muslim rival, Suleiman Isa, and seeks fulfillment with Guru Shridhar Shukla, a wily Guru.

Taking on murder, blackmail, and neighborhood disputes, Sartaj traces Gaitonde's movements and motivations. Chandra weaves together the two men's ruminations on life and death, connecting them to all the major themes of the subcontinent: caste- and religious hatred, poverty, prostitution, and, most importantly, criminal elites who control their territories from outside the country and organize themselves like corporations.

The book is a mixture of English and Hindi words. In order to create an atmosphere, Gaitonde uses local slang. Chandra has penned this 900-page epic, which spins out of Mumbai and takes you into the world of counterfeiting and terrorism―over a period of seven years. He has won awards and accolades for both his previous books, Red Earth and Pouring Rain and Love and Longing in Bombay. It's clear he knows what he's talking about. The story of Sacred Games does not only revolve around Gaitonde and Sartaj but also around other minor characters. The best part of the novel is that by the end of the novel, each character introduced in the novel has reached a climax.

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