Operation Drug Mafia: A somnolent spy thriller

The novel which goes on to describe how different drug routes are used to smuggle narcotics into the country and how a hostile neighboring country plays chess games with Indian operatives on the field can be said to have a fresh look about it.

After all, Venkatesh Raghavan had put in 15 years in crime reporting from a cub reporter in Free Press Journal to a Special Correspondent in Asian Age.

His years of experience in following crime stories to the logical end and also his brush with enforcement agencies like Customs DRI and Excise helped him get an intuitive idea of how the system plies the narcotic trade in the country.

As he writes in the Preface: “ I have created this work of fiction around the grapevine knowledge I had gathered over the years on the field as a reporter…This novel is a product of years of painstaking field work and research…”

Indeed with his experience, the author was able to build up a climax. The resolution of the climax is however, faster than expected by the reader of a spy-thriller genre.

The story begins with Dushyant Mehta, a field operative of RA&W, who has endurance powers and also cunning to play mind games, being betrayed in Afghanistan’s capital city before being rescued and brought back to his city of comfort, namely Mumbai.

Once in Mumbai, Dushyant proves his acumen aptly by roping in a fresh recruit from Afghan soil by name Abdul Hameed.

The situation at one point of time looks preposterous as Abdul was originally hired by Pakistan’s ISI to target Indian cities.

Dushyant is shown adopting an unconventional means of waging war against Pakistan’s spy agency by using tapping techniques, learning about the conversations and accordingly adjusting the circumstances in Mumbai for facilitation of switch in loyalties of Abdul, the fresh recruit.

A point to be made about the plot is that it has not covered any of the diplomatic wrangles that usually happen behind the scene when intelligence agents from rival spy agencies combat each other’s strategy.

Without touching upon the diplomatic scheming part, the novel has based itself on the ground operative’s perspective of intelligence gathering and action.

The plot unfolds when Abdul, the naïve recruit who falls into cunning Dushyant’s  trap starts learning the rope about how to feel, behave and emote in a city like Mumbai where Hizabs and burkas are scarce and the jeans clad variety of feminine charm very common.

The author reveals how Abdul is emotionally brainwashed and beguiled into thinking that this should stay his new normal for ever and his orthodox set of beliefs are unnecessary and a burden on life.

Venkatesh has succeeded in sounding convincing in arguments and counter points and he is also astute in bringing out the levels of corruption among the law-enforcing authorities who are in place to combat narcotic smuggling.

However, he  could have used more intrigue in his narration to usher in more surprises and twists and turns that could have rendered the book into a pot boiler.

Though not a pot boiler, the book comes at an easy pace and is easy on the eye and easy on imagery with ample hilarious situations generated by the culture shock administered to Abdul.

The characters are well developed and the race against time concept cannot be under-emphasized.

The novel is worthy of a read for those who are interested in the crime genre.

Venkatesh’s  years of experience in crime reportage has made the book more like a fictionalized true story.

The author has a firm grasp of how the crime mafia operates in and out of Mumbai and also along with international cartels. This did make his life a lot easier in attempting this essay.

Operation Drug Mafia
Author: Venkatesh Raghavan
Cover Price  Rs. 325. Published by Blackspine in association with Rubric Publishing
Marketed by Times Group Books ( A division of Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd)

(Reviewed by Deepak Parvatiyar)