Cold Cock-Mukul Ranjan

Book: Cold Cock
Author: Mukul Ranjan
Publisher: Evincepub Publishing

Do you think show business is competitive?

Cold Cock by Mukul Ranjan is set in the world of television channels where Ashwin, a software engineer, comes to the unpredictable reality when he joins a fledgling Bhojpuri channel, Birha, but Mynah, a supervising producer in the channel is like a designer label. Birha’s office has quirky and eccentric people leading the organisation. One flip flop after another, conflicting ideas of leadership, ego hassles, cat fights, leg pulling amongst the various employees puts a. Question mark about Birha’s launch. This office is a heaven for bumbling idiots. People are hired here not just for their talents but for their extraneous abilities too. A hilarious story spiked by some unusual dramatic moments keep unfolding. What happens when all this comes together?

The premise of the book is interesting as Mukul puts a series of situations that make you feel a variety of emotions. The storytelling is easygoing and linear, and the overall impression is that of a set of a complex plot. Mukul has used the technicalities of starting a new channel, combined with the complexities of an office romance and the corporate competition. A good aspect of the book is that the book has a graph that goes up and down, keeping the interest in the story alive. Another interesting aspect is that the author has used a lot of elements that use most of the characters and provide a nice flavor to the story. The thing that didn’t work for me in the book was that some of the scenes in the book seemed to miss a link and the situations seemed to haphazardly happen, and a few of them felt unrealistic.

Coming to the characters, the story is focused on the life of Ashwin and how he copes with the things unfolding in front of him. His character is nicely sketched, and I loved how his actions drive the plot. Mynah’s character is something I would have loved to see explored a bit more, and her mood swings were something I would have liked a background on.

Overall, a book is a nice read, but a second round of edits could have been helpful. The book scores a 3.75/5 for me.

Grab a copy of the book on Amazon here.