Plug for Mr Majestic - The Tout of Bengaluru

Zac O’Yeah’s last novel Once Upon a Time in Scandinavistan (which I reviewed here) was a genre-hopping, possibly autobiographical comic noir set in a Sweden that has been colonised by India with many strange results (tandoori mooses, Thums Up-wielding fascists, etc). In contrast, his new novel Mr Majestic – The Tout of Bengaluru is set in the real world, if contemporary Bangalore can be called the real world; here's some information on the book.

I don’t think I’ll be reviewing it, mainly because I’m in the Acknowledgements: Zac thanks me and others for helping him "understand things about cinema". Since that sounds solemn and professorial, I should clarify that most of our conversations centred on memorable bikini scenes in 1980s Hindi films, songs with “hot” lyrics, the possibility that Govinda and Karisma’s moves in “Sarkai lo Khatiya” helped repopulate the earth, and what Anil Kapoor’s chest hair may tell us about the human condition. I don’t know yet if Zac has put any of this into the book, but even if he hasn’t Mr Majestic is likely to be loads of fun. Look out for it.