Love Curry by Pankaj Dubey is the tale of three South Asian boys, an Indian, a Bangladeshi and a Pakistani who share a flat in London. With a bit of sleazy introduction, the author is straightforward and introduces the characters right away. Shahzad, a tattoo artist from Bangladesh has a broken past but puts on a cheerful appearance. Possibly a Bollywood inspiration, the incident that has tormented him all his life is the same one that tormented Amitabh Bachchan's character in the film Mili.
Ali, the shayari loving chef from Pakistan has a family in debt back home on account of internal squabbling having ruined a once established Dhaba started by his paternal grandfather.
Rishi, the Indian from Agra is the mysterious of the lot and nursing a broken heart, prefers to keep to himself. Each character fights a demon from the past and so does Zeenat Aman, the half Indian-half Pakistani love interest of the three boys.
The narration moves on nonchalantly in the initial sections and the readers can make out it's a tale of love, sex and agony. Dubey opens about the characters bit by bit with doses of sarcasm. His Bollywood inspired introduction of Mohammed Mullah, the landlord of the boys was amusing.
There are some short but interesting sub-plots with each of the three characters. For example, how all three face up to their past and mend their lives is presented in the form of sub-plots.
Pankaj Dubey has a Masters in Applied Communication and is a Bollywood screen writer which is evident in his writing style and in the sort of language he deploys. For example, he inserts a twist in the tale when a possible romance between Zeenat and Rishi is cut short due to an unexpected event similar to a masala script.
Although an entertaining light read sprinkled with humour and sarcasm, what the story conveys is similarities of human emotions despite many external differences such as religious and cultural upbringing. That adversity brings different people closer who seemed poles apart at one point.
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