All’s well that ends well in Annie Zaidi’s new short and sweet novel, The Comeback. A departure from the more sombre themes that Zaidi usually writes about in her fiction and nonfiction, this is a novel about second chances in love, friendship, and career.
John K, a small-time movie star, has unexpectedly tasted success in a low-budget Hindi movie. After slogging for fifteen years in Bombay badlands, the movie despite paying peanuts has catapulted him to critical acclaim. The reward is an exclusive profile in an entertainment magazine that wants to sense the “textures” of the actor’s life – his small-town origins, the long years of struggle, etcetera. In an attempt to exaggerate his quirkiness, John lets slip that he had helped his best friend Asghar cheat in an economics examination in college.
This detail would have been of no consequence had Asghar not been a bank employee and his mother, Shakeela ma’am, a well-respected math teacher in their small hometown of Baansa.
Like a row of dainty dominoes, everything comes crashing down – Asghar is fired, his wife is miffed, Shakeela ma’am feels betrayed, and Jaun (he’s John to the Bombaywallahs only) loses his best friend, everything that he held dear in Baansa.
Back to Bansa
With no money and a lot of time on his hands, Asghar moves back into his mother’s home and decides to right the past by taking his BA examinations again (this time in English literature). He does not want to simply earn a living by selling detergents or insurance, he wants to live. Perhaps it is the return to college or the nostalgia for the old days in Baansa, he feels a familiar stirring for the performing arts. Many moons ago, when Jaun and he were still best friends, the two had spent many a happy day together acting and directing in plays.
The old troupe has emptied out of Baansa but Asghar is ready to get dirty to mine diamonds. Meanwhile, as the success of the movie fades into the horizon, Jaun again struggles to find work. He neither has impressive connections nor striking looks – talent can only take him so far in the movie industry. Broke, divorced, and newly friendless, this could be the worst tragedy that has befallen him.
As Asghar settles into the familiar rhythms of Baansa and starts shaping his first production, Jaun becomes increasingly antsy about being so ruthlessly iced out by his best mate.
With only Cheeku by his side, the owner of a sweetshop in Baansa and a longtime friend to both men, Jaun attempts to walk across burned bridges and make amends with Asghar, his wife Zubi, and Shakeela ma’am. If this wasn’t bad enough, Jaun is reminded of yet another person who was at the receiving end of his self-centred ways – Nazo, his first cousin who doted on him and hoped to marry him. The kindness of Nazo’s family can never be repaid and Jaun knows her forgiveness will be the most difficult to earn.
The price of friendship
As the pressures of making a livelihood mount, Jaun cannot stop speculating about what’s happening in Baansa. Asghar is incommunicado, Cheeku is his eyes and ears but Jaun knows he has been instructed not to be completely truthful either. While work dries up in Bombay for Jaun, Asghar heats up in Baansa with ingenious productions of classic plays. Doctor Faustus becomes Dr Baal in his hands and The Rover, Banke. The troupe of amateurs, backed by innovative sets and props and Asghar’s astute direction, become an overnight hit. The audience pays as much as 500 rupees to catch a show, laying to rest all doubt about small-town audiences rejecting theatre.
When Jaun finally lands the role of Malvolio in a multinational cast of Twelfth Night, he is relieved to have found work. The play would be staged in several countries, so that would involve some travel too. And yet, despite the busyness and the apparent importance of his role, his mind is still buzzing with everything that’s going on back home.
No longer interested in just being a silent bystander, Jaun returns home and launches himself headlong into earning Asghar’s forgiveness. As he chases him from venue to venue and city to city, Jaun will realise that while he has become cynical and selfish, his best friend Asghar is still as upright and true as he was all those years ago. A little taste of glamour and fame has proven dangerous, but there is no better antidote than creating art for art’s sake.
While The Comeback is a story of friendship, we hardly see Asghar and Jaun on the same page – literally and figuratively. Jaun relives their friendship through its glory days and yearns to have his friend back. His helplessness is pitiful and repentance, long overdue. Through the story of a somewhat successful actor, Zaidi imagines how corrupting any kind of adulation can be. If being ruthless in the guise of ambition is bad, then being conceited as a natural result of one’s success is even worse. Jaun’s painful journey across the world and country reminded me of gruelling pilgrimages that promise a dazzling reward in the end. He’s beaten by frail health, financial problems, and fast-disappearing friends, but his singular focus to win Asghar back makes everything inconsequential in comparison.
When Jaun sees Nazo after nearly a decade, she’s no longer the timid young woman he had known. She has come into her own and is refreshingly feisty – and every scene with her is a delight to read. This time, she will not be swayed by empty promises.
The Comeback starts on a doomsday but marches on with its head held till it finds its happy ending. Love and romance are fine, but there is nothing sweeter than the reconciliation of two friends. I closed the book with a big smile on my face – may every Jaun find his Asghar, with a little help from Cheeku.
The Comeback, Annie Zaidi, Aleph Book Company.
