Mafia Queens of Mumbai by S Hussain Zaidi: Reality, Revealing & Reliving of an Era!!

 

‘Mafia’…the very word transports us ‘regulars’ to the world which has been created by Hollywood and Bollywood over last half a century now…the world which although is dark, uncertain but still manages to fuel our imaginations so much so that no matter how much we ‘regulars’ try and disregard it, we are hooked on to it in some form or the other, we have always fancied that edge of the seat thriller kind of a life too.

A simple Google search of the word ‘Mafia’ instantly produces results with Sicilian Mafia…and why shouldn’t it, after all that’s where the origins of the word and the concept come from. As per Wikipedia “Mafia” is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering. Each group, known as a "family", "clan", or "cosca", claims sovereignty over a territory in which it operates its rackets According to the classic definition, the Mafia is a criminal organization originating in Sicily. However, the term "mafia" has become a generic term for any organized criminal network with similar structure, methods, and interests.

We have read/seen in movies about a lot of such Mafioso from the Mumbai underworld, which primarily has been dominated by the male species as a bastion; But here we have a book which explores a rather unexplored side of the Mumbai Underworld i.e. the Women who were either calling the shots or were major influencers in the planning and strategizing of the underworld in the decades gone by.

The book has thirteen true stories or rather accounts of women who were involved in black marketeering, prostitution, ring leaders and were even trained assassins. Mafia Queens of Mumbai looks deeply into the lives and times of these women and gives the reader an insider’s view of the Mumbai Mafia and their operations. The brilliance of the book comes from the fact that it has been penned by S.Hussain Zaidi, who was a veteran crime journalist for several decades giving the stories accuracy and the much required fine prints. Also, Zaidi has been able to narrate these stories in a true ‘story’ format rather than a pure document format, which helps the reader get transported in the era of the protagonist.

The book takes you through the lives of these women, their gradual and in some cases meteoric rise, and then their final downfall. It does not comment on whether they were victims of circumstances beyond their control or they were simply manipulating for their own selfish reasons, rather it let’s the reader decide on it.

Zaidi’s earlier best seller has been Black Friday on which Anurag Kashyap had made a milestone of a docu - drama by the same name (although the Indian government decided to ban this masterpiece for reasons best known to them).

While Mafia Queens’s primary focus is to tell the untold story of these women, it very subtly throws light on the lives of the ‘Kings’ of the underworld as well and their good or many a times not so good times (read non-glamorized). A great perspective which this book presents is the areas in Mumbai which were the dens of such activities and the reason why they became what they became, so much so that even four decades later these places happen to be the den of Mumbai Mafioso.

All in all it is a book which has all the elements of a suspense thriller, albeit with a realm of reality in it. A Must Read for all aficionados of the genre.