3 Books by Vinod Mehta torrent

3 Books by Vinod Mehta.

1) The Sanjay Story (2013)


How did a nation of over 600 million people bow down to the whims and fancies of a Prime Minister’s pampered son?

In this carefully researched book, Vinod Mehta makes the first complete appraisal of the Sanjay Gandhi phenomenon and its impact on the national scene. It begins at Anand Bhavan, the Nehru mansion in Allahabad, and Feroze Gandhi’s relationship with the Nehrus – particularly Kamala and Indira. This gives the background to an understanding of Sanjay’s volatile personality as it developed through his early years and his obsession with cars that led to the establishment of the Maruti factory.


2) Meena Kumari (2013)

The Life and Times of India’s Greatest Tragedienne

Vinod Mehta’s riveting account of Meena Kumari’s life begins with her death, weeks after the release of her swan-song Pakeezah. He goes back in time to Meetawala Chawl in Dadar East, where she was born, and to the flats and mansions she lived in, the studios where she worked, the hospital where she died and the cemetery she was cremated in. Having never met the star, Mehta talks to all those who were close to her – her much-maligned husband Kamal Amrohi, her sisters, her in-laws, her colleagues and co-stars – to create a complex portrait of a woman who carefully cultivated the image of someone ‘unfairly exploited and betrayed by her lovers and lady luck’. It was a picture that blended with her on-screen persona. The media had, after all, already anointed her Hindi cinema’s ‘great tragedienne’.

First published in 1972, this revised edition comes with a fresh introduction by the author and introduces a legend of Indian cinema to a new readership.

3) Editor Unplugged (2014)

Vinod Mehta’s new book takes forward the story of Lucknow Boy, recounting his experiences in the corridors of power in Delhi. His views on Narendra Modi, Arvind Kejriwal and the Nehru–Gandhi dynasty, and his decoding of coalition politics and the significant changes ushered in by the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, are expressed with his characteristic sharp insights, wit and wisdom. So too are his analyses of the sweeping changes taking place in the print and TV media, and his pen portraits of personalities such as Ratan Tata, Niira Radia, Khushwant Singh, Sachin Tendulkar and Arundhati Roy. Other chapters examine the lack of humour in our political life, the changing aspirations of the Indian middle class, and the mistakes and regrets of his life. Peppered with anecdotes and gossip, every page of this honest, lively and irreverent book is both illuminating and entertaining