Book Review: Dongri To Dubai

This book is like India's version of The Godfather except all the stuff happened for real.

Growing up in Dubai, I have always heard of Dawood Ibrahim to the point when I came to India to study, my classmates used to make fun of me and say 'She's from the land of Dawood. We need to be careful with this one!'

This book talks about the Mumbai mafia, the rise of Dawood who incidentally was the son of a police officer in Mumbai  and becoming the kingpin of Indian mafia.

This book is brilliantly written by Hussain Zaidi. He makes it sound like he was present as each and every event that was taking place.

This book gives an insight on how mafia ruled over Bollywood and how some of the famous stars were literally peeing in their pants. Being a Bollywood starlet is not just looking pretty and dancing around trees. I mean there are serious threats to their lives.

 Bollywood had made couple of movies based on the mafia such as

Image courtesy of http://www.join4film.com

and the latest flick with John Abraham and a whole bunch of heroines doing 'item' numbers

Image courtesy of Wikipedia

I have never been a fan of these kind of movies because Bollywood being Bollywood would make the movie so far fetched that its quite impossible to believe such things happen in real life. After reading this book, I take back my words. I mean some of the stuff that these guys have pulled off in broad daylight is just unbelievable.

This book is not just about Bollywood. It talks about how the mafia has a hand in everything that's happened in India in the 80's & 90's. Its just crazy and a huge eyeopener.

I highly recommend this book to everyone. This is a must read.

My rating: 4.5/5