Villainy

by Upamanyu Chatterjee

Walkers in a Delhi neighbourhood park come upon a body on a mid-winter morning—an unidentified body, unremarkable but for an extraordinary scar right between the eyes.

A delinquent teenager—who prefers, to the rest of living, an Ecstasy pill with a beer, and the interior of an expensive car with a gun in his pocket—leaves home one evening for a joyride in his father’s Mercedes.

In the nineteen years separating these episodes, five killings take place—and one near-fatal battery—none of which would have happened if a school bus hadn’t been in the wrong lane. Deals are struck between masters and servants, money changes hands, assurances are given and broken. The wheels of justice turn, forward, backwards and sideways, pause and turn again. Old alliances are tested and new ones are formed in prison cells, mortuaries and court rooms. And every life is a gamble, for no one is entirely innocent.

A meticulously crafted literary thriller, Upamanyu Chatterjee’s seventh novel is a riveting story of crime and retribution, and a meditation on the randomness of evil, death and redemption. It will keep you spellbound till the end.

Genres: Fiction

336 pages, Hardcover

Published February 22, 2022

About the author

Upamanyu Chatterjee is an Indian author and administrator, noted for his works set in the Indian Administrative Service. He has been named Officier des Arts et des Lettres (Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters), by the French Government.

Reviews

[Divya Pal · Rating 3 out of 5]

A graphic description of life in Delhi – a wealthy, philandering Mercedes-loving businessman, a rich spoilt brat, policemen with varying degrees of efficiency and sleaze, a dedicated mortuary attendant, a loyal driver, judges and lawyers of every ilk, the streets of Delhi, criminal courts, gaols and life within for venal supervisors and inmates – both innocent, as well as convicted, sundry canines, road rage and its consequences in the murderous traffic of India’s capital city, immigrants from mofussil towns across the ‘cow belt’, predatory ‘god-men.’ Here is a passage equating crime with quantum mechanics

The principles of villainy and uncertainty appear to be beguilingly familiar. They are all terribly all-pervasive, for one, and further, one can never be fully certain wither of what constitutes villainy, of whether it is not governed, just as much as the principle of uncertainty, by the four cardinal characteristics of time, location, movement and spin, and of whether it is not just unstable, volatile – and slippery, in short.

The ending is somewhat, disappointingly, abrupt and uncertain – unsatisfying after the detailed narrative.

[Priyadarshini · Rating 4 out of 5]

“..for since when has death not been a travesty of all that holds meaning?”

At one point in the novel, the author wonders what constitutes villainy and compares it to the uncertainty principles of physics— both being governed by time, location, movement and spin.

What makes Pukhraj the villain that he is? In 1997, and the age of 18, he murders two people and does not feel any remorse. You wonder if he wouldn’t have turned out this way if he had been given one right slap at the right time (I was raised in the 90s and it was the go-to parenting disciplinary action. I of course have never been slapped except that one time at the age of 2 when I ate mud from the garden because it smelled of petrichor) or if he was at the receiving end of his father’s imported belt a little too often.

It is the genius of Chatterjee’s writing that you want to adopt Pukhraj at one moment and slap some sense into him the next. Would a little affection have made him a better person? But his mother loved him, a bit too much perhaps, and there is something dysfunctionally tender about the time they go shop-lifting and follow it up with ice-cream.

I read this book during the 2-day internet outage and was struck by its very cinematic writing. The visual of the corpse-bearers negotiating a baffle gate with the dignity of an oil tanker changing course in mid-ocean will stay with me. As will the old coughing and farting Omni, the tube lit corridors of the morgue and the stinking hell-hole that prison is. And while some of the chapters go in too deep into the procedural aspect of the murder— from the autopsy to the court verdict and everything in between, and the women of all ages are written with a definite male gaze (all that cleavage! I never do understand whether to attribute the male gaze to the characters or the author), the observational humour is the hero and the answer to all the villainy in this book.

And if the wheels of justice turn a bit too slowly for your liking in this story, it is in the interest of your health, reader, for your poor heart will still be recovering from the tension of that dreadful scene where things escalate too quickly, leaving you wondering whether it could have been avoided if only the time, location, movement or spin would’ve been slightly different.

But oy with the cleavage already!

[Chitra Iyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

For starters, the cover is amazing! When you read the book, you’ll see how perfect it goes with the story.

Now, for the review. Where do I even begin? This is my first time reading the author’s work (I know, I should go hide myself somewhere) and the moment I began reading I was hooked. The narrative was taking me in, images were forming and I was cozying into the story but what impressed me the most was the writing style. Fluent and precise. The writing is just superb – totally Indian and superb!

I breezed through the pages of the book because the story is simply absorbing. It felt like a movie and believe me, what a fantastic movie it was!

The characters were as if lifted from real life. The technicalities and descriptions all prove that this work is of a master writer, a master story teller. The storyline starts with a murder, moves on to the flashback that is the crux of the story, and then returns to the present. That’s when we realise how it was done and more importantly, why it was necessary.

I can’t compare the author’s work with anyone else’s, he is one of a kind. Honestly, I am just going ahead and buying all his books, I’m speechless.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Obviously biased but really loved

[Veturi · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you could complete a Upamanyu Chatterjee book, however long it takes to, it is a reminder to yourself, that you can read a book and boy did I need that reminder or what. I took about six months to read this book and I had to re-read it quite a lot during the days just to ensure that I did not miss a key plot point or something, coz Chatterjee has a knack of slipping in important things quite haphazardly into his long sentences, with carefully and rigorously chained, hyphenated and commaed words seemingly struggling and giggling as they push into each other.

Overwritten is an understatement for any of his works, and it becomes self-defeating to call them that as he is almost gleeful at his ability to overwrite everything, but the passages sometimes are truly delicious in this book, case in point being the 4 or so pages introducing Judge Lodhi. Chatterjee knows Indian bureaucracy very closely and he takes particular pleasure in describing it in minute details obsessing on the lethargy of the system and usual unfitness of people influential and otherwise practicing it.

Still this is one of those genre books with a big reveal in the end and all, so it is kind of accessible if one is willing to put in a few hard yards, or a thousand of them. How much you enjoy this will still depend on how much you humor it.

[Debarati · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book starts off as one thing. A very typical, happens-all-the-time-in-India kind of a thing. But then, it takes a delicious turn. That’s what makes this book worthy of five-big-giant-stars!
We know Mr. Chatterjee can write well and write prickly characters even better! So, this book is a delight! Don’t want to spoil it, but if you find your interest flagging, then be patient and read on and you won’t be disappointed!

[Sydney Monteiro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Villainy starts strong with an intriguing premise and a gritty urban setting. The writing explores themes of privilege, power, and systemic failure, but much of the plot feels familiar and repetitive. The story had the chance to really surprise toward the end, but the twist—while interesting—lacked proper buildup and left me unsatisfied. Overall, it's not a bad book, but it could have been much more impactful with stronger execution.

[Siddhartha · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a thriller perfect to be converted into celluloid, but it was also a pleasure to devour such a beautiful writing.