A wide range of autobiographies have hit the market in 2014, from film personalities and sportsmen, to politicians and bureaucrats.
Some, like Sachin Tendulkar's Playing It My Way have broken all publishing records of the hardback non-fiction book market in India. Reception to and market for biographies and autobiographies has always been subdued in this country. It might have to do with the belief that the Indian reader would much prefer a scaled epic meted out on a glittering canvas, than a realistic, nuanced tale, just like it goes in the case of Bollywood cinema viewers. We have rarely seen autobiographies make their way into readerships based on good writing and illustrious creativity. They sell due to the mass appeal of the personalities.
We take a look at three major autobiographies, that have released in the recent months and created waves in India.
Sachin Tendulkar's Playing It My Way: One must of course, begin with the most awaited biography of the year. Sachin's autobiography released with an initial print run of 1,10,000 copies on November 6 amidst much fan-fare and was widely promoted including by Sachin himself. Tendulkar let a few excerpts out in public before the book release which dealt with some of the controversial episodes of his career. The country that looks up to Sachin and reveres him as God couldn't wait to get their hands on the copy. A reader or not, people bought the book in huge numbers due to the following the 'Master Blaster' has. As of Wednesday, November 6, more than 1,50,000 copies had already been pre-ordered. Early reviews however, show that the book fails to bring out unrevealed facts and reads more like a score-card of Tendulkar's international cricketing records.
Naseeruddin Shah's And Then One Day: This book reads like a creative prose, that apart from its flawless literary merit, also deserves equal credit for its brutal honesty and layered humour. In the autobiography segment, ghost writers are largely credited with writing in a tone so different from that of the personality in question, that the readers feel like they are glancing through his or her life's voiceover. Shah's decision to not hire one, makes one enjoy the book all the more, because you hear it in his voice, with his charisma blazing all guns.The title of the book comes from Dark Side of the Moon (Pink Floyd album), and trust Naseer to write it as differently from convention as the roles he has essayed in his career.
Also read: Book Review: And Then One Day... A Memoir by Naseeruddin Shah
Dilip Kumar's The Substance and the Shadow: After two previous biographies: Urmila Lanba’s The Thespian: Life and Films of Dilip Kumar and Lord Meghnad Desai’s Nehru’s Hero: Dilip Kumar in the Life of India, veteran actor Dilip Kumar penned his autobiography titled The Substance and the Shadow which covers the legendary actor's six decades in the film industry and an engaging recount of his early days in Peshawar. A connoisseur of the arts, Dilip Kumar, who has always been a voracious reader of literary works in Urdu, Persian and English, ensures that the narrative structure of the book has a poetic flow to it which blends the story of his life and his art. This has in part, been meticulously done by Udayatara Nayar, who has known the Dilip Kumar-Saira Banu duo for a good part of half a century.
Also read: Book Review: The Substance and the Shadow - An Autobiography
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