Annie Zaidi’s “The Comeback” is the story of two young men from a small town in North India who share a common love for the theatre. Though both are extremely talented and passionate, they choose very different paths.
Asghar Abbasi took up a job at a bank, got married, had children and embraced a typical middle-class existence. John K, on the other hand, dreamt of making it as an actor- he spent many years at the fringes of the acting profession, often taking up lighting jobs in order to sustain himself while he kept knocking at doors for his big break as an actor.
The lives of both these friends change drastically when “after the success of his first major film, actor John K. lets his ego get the better of him and says too much in a fateful interview. The fallout shatters the life of his college friend. Disgraced, unemployed, his marriage in jeopardy, Asghar’s stable middle-class life is thrust into crisis. Broken but unbowed, Asghar retreats to his hometown, Baansa, where he rediscovers his true calling—the stage.
Devastated by the betrayal, he is determined to cut John out of his life; John, while remorseful, is equally determined to claw his way back in. As Asghar’s grassroots small-town theatre takes off, John’s star begins to dim, leaving him stuck in a career that pays the bills but is artistically stultifying. On the outside and desperate to be part of Asghar’s theatre comeback, John is forced to discover the limits of his self-centredness, and confront his ego, the shallow allure of fame, and the false hierarchies of the arts.”
The author’s own training in theatre is evident in how the novel is structured. She sketches the backdrop with an enviable economy of words, then allows the characters to take over. The dialogue is crisp, the characters (including the supporting characters) are well-developed, and the plot moves forward at just the right pace. The story is essentially told from the perspective of the actor, John K. He is selfish, self-serving, and deeply flawed, yet you find yourself hoping things will work out for him.
I particularly loved the affection with which each of the three main female characters was developed. In a story which is essentially about the rivalry between two college friends, they could very easily have devolved into caricatures, yet each was well sketched out, and in their own way, they had the same kind of growth and development as the main characters.
The entire novel is built on the perceived hierarchy of the performing arts, and the author subtly makes a point about how many of the attempts at decolonisation end up magnifying the same systems they were supposed to overthrow. Through Asghar’s stubborn decision to insist on centring his theatre in his hometown, Baansa, the author pays homage to the theatre, which could flourish in smaller towns but is subsumed in an attempt to reach a wider audience. At least in this novel, Asghar is able to resist the temptation to do so!
The blurb promises that The Comeback “is a story of the price of betrayal, friendship and forgiveness, second chances, and the transformative power of art,” and the book certainly lives up to that promise. In this book, Annie Zaidi demonstrates yet again why she is considered one of the finest Indian novelists writing in English today.
[I thank Aleph Book Company for a review copy. The views are my own.]