Recently I read the book ‘RIP‘ by Mukul Deva while I was traveling a lot around South India. I took a lot of breaks while reading the book during travel but the fast pace and action theme of the book kept getting me back to it. If you are wondering what RIP means, it is not ‘Rest In Peace’ but ‘Resurgent Indian Patriots’ though of course the RIP team conveys the message ‘Rest In Peace’ to all corrupt officials in our country. This is a very timely book as right now India is being beseeched by a lot of scams and scandals which are rocking its foundation. To tackle this problem, a group of ex-defence personnel form the K-team which includes Colonel Krishna Athawale, Major Karan Singh, Major Kevin David, Major Kashif Nadeem, Major Kamlesh Saikia and Major Kulwant Singh Bajwa. Together they take it upon themselves to eliminate corruption from India by killing the most corrupt themselves!
The book begins with 3 murders which sets the tone for K team’s mission in which they want to eliminate the people who are
corrupt and destroying our country from inside. Suddenly home ministry and CBI gets alerted and try to track down the murderers.
CBI team is the official team lead by special director Vinod Bedi who wants to get to the root of this problem and try to solve
it. But there is another unofficial team which is lead by Rogue Paracommando Raghav Bhagat whose sole mission is to kill each
and everyone in the K-team. There is also Reena Bhagat, a glamorous news anchor, embittered by her husband Raghav Bhagat’s
betrayal. There is a love triangle in this book amidst all this action too. You must read the book to understand how cleverly
Mukul Deva wove this into the story!
I think the reason Mukul Deva could write such a brilliant book on how Indian army functions is because he has been an alumnus
of National Defence Academy, Pune and the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun. He was in the Sikh Light Infantry of the Indian
Army. He is India’s leading writer of military thrillers, including the bestselling Lashkar series. Such a gripping script that
this book has, I think it will surely be snapped up by a Bollywood director who will want to make a thrilling movie out of this.
When that happens, I’m sure that movie will be a super hit!
Coming back to the premise of the book, I felt the book’s theme was very similar to ‘Tagore’ movie in which Telugu Mega Star
Chiranjeevi acted. Its a story about a group of vigilante military network called the Anti-Corruption Force (ACF) that
eliminates the most corrupt individuals, from all walks of life, in a systematic manner. This drives fear into the other corrupt
officials who try to change their corrupt ways and become honest. I wonder why all authors or filmmakers think that the only way
to eliminate corruption is via violence and not via non-violence or non-co-operation like Gandhiji did.
Colonel Krishna Athawale’s past and Captain Rajath Bhagat’s past come back to haunt them during the book but they still put up a
brave face while trying to deal with the ghosts of the past and concentrate on their tasks ahead. Every character in the book
has been developed in detail. You can actually imagine how each person looks and the conditions in which he had to turn violent.
I liked the character building and I believe this sets in motion a series of books on this theme. Don’t be surprised to see RIP2
coming out soon on the stands! I also liked the fact that book covered many real events like 2G scams, hijacking of IC-814, Bofors and CW games. A wonderful read and an amazing thriller, RIP by Mukul Deva keeps you on your toes and on the edge of your seat till the end!
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