Review of "The bankster" by Ravi Subramanian..

I have not read many book reviews let alone done one, and little did I know that this book review which is my first is going to be a bit of tug-o-war due to some miscommunication. First things first, I am doing a review of “The Bankster” by Mr. Ravi Subramanian who has already produced some wonderful bank based thrillers. Although I am reading him for the first time, I liked what I read.

I am an illiterate when it comes to the corporate world and their functioning so I was eager to know about the functioning of banks, especially the multinationals, I am glad to say that I did pick up a few details about how the banks actually work and what goes on in their employees’ mind. Add to it the spice of thriller and it becomes an intellectual treat.

The best thing about thrillers is that  they whisk your troubled mind away from your monotonous, and dull paced life (I mean come on, who gets to have a stint with international criminals and huge scaled frauds) and thankfully Mr. Subramaninan’s novel was no exception. It is quite indulging in itself.

A good novel is always made great by its characters and some of the characters have been etched well and even the most basic reader (like me) could easily relate to their state of mind.

I have never been very good at geography and hence it was refreshing to read about so many cities and countries in one novel (except for navi Mumbai which is second home for me). However at places I did find some unnecessary leaps from country to country in order to explain various events ( eg.Blood diamonds were wasted in vain.) Agreed fiction writing gives you the creative liberty to take you places but at times there was too much of shuffling between countries , which lead to confusion.

The linking of various controversies was done intricately and beautifully apart from the places where there were too many coincidences (Harshita choosing Vienna as vacation spot.)

I found the language understandably simple ( for the classes) but the usage of Hindi slangs and sentences was and will always be a turn off for me. I cant overlook the fact that Mr. Subramanian has used Hindi quite lavishly. It does raise some questions about the writer’s ability to express himself in the chosen language.

When I read a thriller I expect it to make an impact on my mind strong enough to keep me mentally intrigued about it for days. The bankster did that , although not for desired length of time but substantial. It did raise some questions about the credibility of our own trusted cluster of people, it made me think about the efficiency of corporate world(no offence to my own bank , Kotak, they are exceptional.)

The biggest flaw I found with the whole story was the lack of a defined protagonist in the first half of the book. He is introduced after a major chunk of the plot is revealed. Though he is a treat for the mind in the way he works through the puzzle, the eyes are missing something. I wanted to know how does he look? What does he wear? Is he geeky or muscled up? I don’t know whether people want that description or not, but I am a sucker for descriptions, be it of a place or a person. I want to be able to picture the scenes as they unfold even when I am not reading the book.

The protagonist is the backbone of a thriller and I always try to have some kind of connection with him/her, be it sympathy, hatred, anger, love in short any shade of emotion but as the hero of the novel Karan Punjabi didn’t evoke any such emotion.

If I have to sum up the whole thing I will say if you ignore some minor flaws (like such an intricate, huge criminal web involving CIA was spun by an Indian, seems improbable) and predictable turn of events, you will surely enjoy reading “The Bankster”, though it cant be compared with the likes of Jeffrey Archer or Sidney Sheldon, Mr. Subramanian has his own unique way of weaving a thriller which does hold the readers.


Ravi Subramanian can be found here