Hari — A Hero For Hire is the second novel in the Hari Majestic series. Better known as Hero, Hari’s latest venture is a detective agency. Set in the underbelly of Bengaluru, the plot is taut with the right amount of thrills and plot twists, making one recall the James Hadley Chase or Nick Carter series of the Nineties. The novel is divided into sections, each beginning with a “How to”, echoing self-help books, for it is one, in a sense; a guide-book to being street smart as well as a survivor. It is a medical thriller and the theme is not, however, new — illegal organ transplants in the so-called private clinics on the streets of one of India’s metropolises. However, the treatment is indeed new, exuding raw energy, drawing upon the essence of the city it is set in.
Though the novel is a sequel, one need not necessarily read the earlier one to comprehend it. The small nooks and corners of Bengaluru, where crime and law interact on an everyday level, come alive in the narrative — the city is represented in all its shades. It reminds one of an old, rickety tourist bus, promising the splendour of all the important places in a city, and with the tenacity of the same, guides one through the action and mishaps in Hari’s life and his detective agency, Mr Majestic, OK& Co, Heroes for Hire. The mention of a hero is not accidental for more than once, the plot will remind one of South Indian as well as Bollywood films.
The cover of the novel sets off the mood for the story — it’s bright, loud and kitsch. The author and the subtitle are in gold against a black background, with the impression of glowing lED lights, like a neon shop banner, drawing attention to the commercial nature of the project. Hari is clear — whatever pays the bills of greasy non-vegetarian food and cheap alcohol for him and his best friend cum sidekick, Triplex, who is also a video pirate, is a viable option. He ‘hires’ two other experts for his dream detective agency-Doc, a cyber café owner and surveillance expert and Gaadi, a macho auto rickshaw driver. Zac manages to maintain the balance between humour, often dark, and the taut stretching of dangerous situations, one such example being the bike chase scene. It is compelling, dangerous and hilarious. The murderous Bhascar, a disgruntled client, along with his drunk cronies chase Hari on his Enfield bullet, ‘bought third-hand’, races across the narrow lanes of slums, ending in Hari’s accident and the entry to the bigger, murkier case at Globalized Style Super Speciality Clinic.
The novel manages to give a fresh lease of life to the well-worn theme of illegal organ transplant in the genre of crime thrillers. One could also draw parallels with the Eighties’ Bollywood movies with the novel’s range of characters and plot twists. The characters are familiar, be it the “Ex-firebrand” Marxist schoolteacher Meshtu or the sinister Dr Viral, a man convinced in the illegal transplants business as a philanthropic mission. To add to the flavour are Nurse Diamond, the hot Malayalam nurse, and Hari’s love and the mother-like Nurse Kolaveri. However, Zac fleshes out each character well, making them endearing, in spite of the discrepancies and indecencies they commit. The technique employed by Zac is strict adherence to details, such as clothes or environment, making the narrative tangible. From Triplex’s flashy shirts to the tiny nose stud worn by Nurse Diamond to the details of liver transplant, the attention to details ensure that the novel is gripping, yet also reflect the specific world it is centred around.
The nostalgic remembrance of sex thrillers however might lead one to overlook the flaw of borrowing from the canon a bit too much. Women are mere accessories to the action and the hero, while the male bond is shown as unbreakable, even when Triplex’s actions almost kill Hari. The characters though well fleshed, seem a bit too larger than life to be taken seriously. Added to it is the representation of Alice, mocking the likes of Eat, Pray, love tourists, seeking to get rid of past sins in India. Hari fleeces people, albeit between occasional bouts of conscience, be it during the adulterated video of Triplex and Bhascar’s wife or traumatising Alice with the guilt of stealing a liver from an uneducated slum kid, are not believable. The tone is mocking, ironic and reminds one of Aravind Adiga’s White Tiger. But while Adiga would be characteristically dark, Zac balances it out with the glare of the neon-signboard of slapstick humour.
The need for a ‘happy ending’ dampens the earlier pace of the novel. The hero marries the heroine and everything settles into place — makes it lose the edge it had managed to garner in almost three-fourths of its narrative. However, catering to an Indian audience firmly in love with its movies, the idea works and makes it an enjoyable read.
The reviewer pursues MPhil in English literature in Delhi University