A trilogy more than two decades in the making, Sahitya Akademi award winning author Kiran Nagarkar's chronicle of two young men hoping to make it big in Bollywood, has finally drawn to a close with the release of his latest book.
'Rest in Peace' Ravan and Eddie -- the darkly humorous tale of two down-on-their luck youngsters from Mazgaon in Mumbai, began with the publication of the first book "Ravan and Eddie" in 1995.
Growing up in the cramped Central Works Department chawl in Mumbai, the infant Ram unwittingly falls off a balcony onto Eddie's father, accidentally killing him in the process. Soon after, the god-fearing mother of the infant re-christens him Ravan, in a bid to ward off the evil eye.
Inexorably bound by tragedy, the two heroes Ravan and Eddie stumble along a rocky road laden with adventures and misadventures, all in the hope of finding fame in tinsel town.
From the glitz and glamour of Bollywood to the badlands of Chambal. From air-kissing high-society to gun-wielding mafia bosses, the duo muddle along from one catastrophe to another, without ever losing their trademark sangfroid.
After the first book Nagarkar waited for 17 years to pick up the narrative again and take the story forward in the second of his trilogy.
"The Extras" published in 2012, saw Ravan and Eddie getting a chance to shake a leg with actress Helen in a Bollywood song.
"While writing the first book, I had gone into Ravan and Eddie's adulthood. Then I realised that this is not going to be a small book, if I am to write one book alone. In the meantime I was drawn to the character of Mirabai or rather that of her husband, and so I wrote 'Cuckold'," says the author who won a Sahitya Akademi award for it.
"Rest in Peace", published by Harper Collins, is set in the 80s and 90s. The third in the series of novels starring the two oddly named protagonists starts off with the duo finally making it to Bollywood as successful music directors.
But then, to their dismay, they discover even though their song has reached dizzying heights of popularity, they are still stuck in the mire of anonymity.
"In the first chapter of 'Rest in Peace' you find out that the duo have been completely ignored. Ravan has gone back to being a taxi driver and Eddie is back to being a car mechanic. Then they find out that they have been located. The first part of the book is about how they then make it to the big time," he says.
