Dark Star: The Loneliness of Being Rajesh Khanna by Gautam Chintamani (Book Review: 3.75*/5)!!!

2137th BLOG POST

5^th Book of 2025

Being a Bollywood fan, reading a book based on movies gives me the same excitement and thrill as watching films. I always look out for books that speak about the changes in cinema over the years or narrate the lives of popular figures through biographies/autobiographies. This quest led me to Gautam Chintamani’s Dark Star: The Loneliness of Being Rajesh Khanna, which has been re-published by Rupa Publications after 10 years of its first launch. I never knew about this book, but thanks to Rupa for bringing it into the spotlight once again.

Gautam, as an author, has a wide range and vast experience, having written for years across different forays covering everything from movies to politics. This was my first opportunity to read his work, and I must say his writing style is adapted to make the book a fast read. Even though the book is around 270 pages, I never felt that any of the chapters or segments were stretched. He knows how to keep you hooked by regularly changing gears and providing insights into different aspects of the same topic.

The author has written the book on Rajesh Khanna in a way that feels like a case study, explaining how he struggled to find his first successful movie, then moved towards the peak of his career with 15 consecutive hits, and finally witnessed his career graph falling drastically, never reaching those heights again. Generally, when a biographer chooses a personality, the writing is often in awe of him/her, but this is one of the rarest books I’ve read where the author remains completely neutral towards the subject. He talks about both his good and bad aspects—professional and personal—very courageously, without worrying about how it might be perceived by his family or fans.

Gautam has covered his filmography, describing each movie and its story in detail, which helps us understand the nature of films made in those days. He also highlights how Rajesh Khanna came across as a completely soft, romantic hero without borrowing traits from the then-hit actors like Dev Anand. Similarly, after Amitabh Bachchan became a phenomenon in his ‘angry young man’ avatar, which impacted Rajesh Khanna’s career immensely, the author has been able to compare and discuss both these actors consistently throughout the narrative. At one point, you do feel that Gautam is definitely a fan of Bachchan, given the way he speaks so highly of him every time he mentions him. Haha!

One thing that disappointed me was the non-coverage of Rajesh Khanna’s life as a family man. You get all the details about his behavior off the sets—at home, with colleagues, producers, directors, co-stars, and girlfriends—but you never get an idea of how he was as a son, husband, father, or father-in-law. Since the title of the book refers to him as a “Dark Star,” there must have been a certain amount of darkness in his family life too, which should have been covered.

Overall, the book is written for the new generations who can only relive the era of Bollywood in the 60s, 70s, and 80s through such stories, and this one helps in understanding Bollywood’s first superstar—Rajesh Khanna. This is definitely a page-turner, as you want to know what happens next with a personality like his, someone who constantly tried to reach the heights he experienced right at the start of his career. The author must be appreciated for even covering the last phase of his life, diving deep into his final advertisement shoot for Havells fans and his funeral, which was covered by the media as one of the big events of our country. I would rate this book 3.75* out of 5.

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WRITING BUDDHA 

The Heroes Among us by Sanjeev Sanyal/Sonia Mehta (Book Review: 5*/5) !!!

2136th BLOG POST

4^th Book of 2025

 

I remember my parents purchasing me small biographies of famous personalities during our train journeys in childhood. I would read about them and feel the possibility of achievement and success one can reach in their lifetime. It helped me become disciplined, punctual and a routine-person right from my college days. The impact that such books have on children in their growing years is immense. I still get such books to read for nostalgia as well as dose of inspiration even now. I am glad that Rupa Publication keeps on releasing such books hence I always go through their latest collection on Amazon. My latest read has been “The Heroes Among Us” which consists of small chapters each dedicated to an extraordinary Indian.

 

The book has been written by Sanjeev Sanyal and Sonia Mehta. This 200-pages book is specifically created for children aged 8 and above – exactly the age when I had become friends with such motivating and inspiring books. Authors have ensured that they write it in a friendly language so that it’s understandable by children easily. Even as an adult who is in his mid-30s, I was able to enjoy the book and never felt it’s not for my age. Authors have kept it relevant for everyone.

 

The chapters don’t talk about every personality in the same tone or follow the same pattern while narrating their heroics. It is written in a casual approach with short divisions in the chapter based on a particular event associated with the personality, a major experience or just an incident which impacted them to become what they are. It doesn’t consist of the basic details such as their birth date, birth place, name of parents etc. the way we, millennials, were taught in our school books which only bored us whereas this book makes us want to read more even after we finish it.

 

Another appreciable initiative by the authors are the 25 personalities they chose to cover in this book. It doesn’t speak about the popular or modern public figures only but also talks about some lesser-known personalities who made an equal effort to transform India towards betterment. For e.g. every one knows about Indira Gandhi, Narendra Modi, Dhirubhai Ambani, Rakesh Sharma, Kiran Bedi, Vishwanathan Anand, Mary Kom, Neeraj Chopra but not many knows about Nambi Narayanan who helped ISRO with his technologies to make Rocket launching easier, E. Sreedharan whose expertise in railways helped India develop metros in several cities and build lines on difficult ghats of Konkan railways, Verghese Kurien whose willpower and management helped India bring a white revolution and made it capable of providing milk to its big population on daily basis.

 

Authors have also concentrated upon ensuring the coverage of Indians from different fields such as sports, politics, engineering, management, space missions, aviation, literature etc. This will help open the mindset of children towards developing their interest in any field and excel in the same. Overall, this is one of the best children books based on small biographies of multiple personalities which is suitable for adults as well for a short-read. I give this book 5 out of 5.

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WRITING BUDDHA

The Ayodhya Alliance by Ashwin Sanghi (Book Review: 4.5*/5) !!!

2135th BLOG POST

3rd Book of 2025!

 

There are few authors whose announcement of a new book brings you the same excitement as Tom Cruise’s fans who wait for his Mission Impossible series. Ashwin Sanghi, one of India’s top authors, have created the same fanbase and cult following where every new book seems like an opportunity to read the same conceptual novel but with a completely different storyline using the elements of ancient knowledge and strong Indian culture. I just completed reading one of the thickest books of my life named “The Ayodhya Alliance” which is Sanghi’s 8^th book in his Bharat Collection. This book has the same flavour as his previous books and right from the word- GO- you can start feeling nostalgic of all his previous works read by you.

 

The Ayodhya Alliance mixes fact with fiction seamlessly which makes us question what is real and what has been written using creative liberty. The story navigates from 7000 years ago till the present time. It also makes you travel to different continents and countries such as India, Korea, Syria, Europe, Damascus, Switzerland etc. Even within India, it travels to different states and historical monuments. The way it ties all these places with the concept of Dvaitalingam which has the power to create harmony as well as massive destruction with its unique feature of managing the duality of everything under the umbrella is interesting. Every time the reference of two-fish design enters the story, the reader in you gets glued to the book.

 

The blend of history, mythology and religion is common in such books but the way Ashwin further marinates it with science, geopolitics, spirituality, anthropology, philosophy, archaeology and many other such concepts is unbelievable. His hard and smart work behind researching for this book is evident in every chapter. I was astonished at times that how could he even think of a concept and then find about it in subjects which are enough critical for us to understand it properly to blend it in our fiction story. This is what makes Sanghi a unique author and the reason why he is compared with popular foreign authors as well.

 

The book could become heavy and boring if it would consist all the above concepts that has been covered by Ashwin in his novel but he knows that he has to keep the readers hooked for more than 500 pages which makes him narrate his story bringing in the human emotions at play. The story revolves around friendship, betrayal, love, romance, childhood issues, jealousy, relationships etc. This makes him create few important characters who form the crux of this book such as Soju, Mithra, Suriratna, Bhadraketu, Padmasen, Indumati, Kulasekara etc.

 

The characterizations are wonderfully handled considering different personas belong to different region and language spread over different continents and timeline. I was completely engrossed in how the characters in different timelines are fighting for themselves and bigger purpose at the same time. The character of Aditya and Somi are equally important in the modern context. I just wished if the modern antagonists were also narrated as dangerous and powerful as Talhae who is based 2000 years ago.

 

Ashwin Sanghi’s respect for Indian culture and religion is evident from the way he narrates the characters and stories whenever it involves references from Ramayan/Mahabharat or mentions the names of Gods and Goddesses. Even the book starts with the plot where Ravan is on his deathbed and Ram sends his younger brother, Lakshman to learn whatever he can from a knowledgeable being like Ravan.

 

Talking about the drawbacks, I must say that the regular shift of story’s timeline with short chapters makes it difficult for readers to read it in fast pace. It takes an extra effort to regularly remember the storyline in each timeline and region. There are few chapters wherein I had created notes to refer later on in the story but I identified that there wasn’t much fallback to those subplots at all or didn’t have that impact. Sanghi could have easily shorten the book by 80-100 pages to make it more fast-paced. I was expecting a surprising revelation in the climax but it isn’t as thrilling as few books of Sanghi such as The Krishna Key.

 

Overall, reading this book has definitely given an unforgettable experience with its vast research and beautiful characterization based around the story distributed in several timelines. The mixture of multiple concepts blend into a single book keeps you in awe of both- the creator and the creation. The title of the book- The Ayodhya Alliance is very strategically handled in the story on how several countries are involved in safeguarding a concept that keeps them and the world harmonious. I give this book 4.5* out of 5. Recommended for the readers who have read similar books before. Beginners might find the story tough to read due to complex timeline shifts.

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WRITING BUDDHA