JYOTI SHELAR

The Bhais of Bengaluru  by  Jyoti Shelar; Published by  Blue Salt Penguin ; Pages: 213; Price Rs 299/-

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All of us have heard of Mario Puzo and read his classic novel on the  “Mafia”—“Godfather”. Many  of us have seen Marlon Brando emote the Don and decline the richly deserved  Oscar.

Who is the Mario Puzo of India and the equivalent of “Godfather”?. He is S.Hussain Zaidi and the book is “From Dongri to Dubai” based on the Dons of Mumbai.

Now we have a novel on the Dons of Bengaluru . It is “The Bhais of Bengaluru” written by Jyoti Shelar who was assistant to Hussaini. The book  brings out unknown tit-bits   about gangsters who commencing from minor extortionists turned into horrifying  names in  Bengaluru real-estate circles.  Jyoti Shelar, a print journalist with over ten years  experience as a field reporter, prises open  this unknown  underbelly of India’s Garden City.

Hussain himself hoped  to undertake this study  but got bogged down by other dons.

  The book under review  starts its journey  with how  Kempe Gowda founded Bengaluru on a piece of land he believed was heroic after witnessing  a tiny hare chasing a dog during a hunting expedition.

Each  locality boasted of  one tough, well-built man who was held in total fear – Malleshwaram had Market Jaggi, Kalasipalaya had Ganpathy, Srirampura had Miyan Pehelwan, and Shivajinagar had its Pehelwans. There  was no trace of what Kannadigas call ‘Bhugataloka’ or the underworld and the city was still unfamiliar with organised crime or crude  criminals.

 ‘From Pehelwans to Bhugataloka’, introduces readers  to Bengaluru’s first powerful rowdy in the 1960s, Mune Gowda, whose mere presence in a room was enough to intimidate people. He exacted  mamool             ( extortion money). A dozen young, well-built locals armed with swords decided to teach him a lesson, but face-to-face with him, only one managed to hit, which cost Mune Gowda three fingers of his right hand. His womanising ways proved to be major weakness. His enemies succeeded in making  a woman feed him crushed glass along  with his food.

Then in the 1970s, it was from Bengaluru’s once-revered wrestling houses that the city got its most dangerous and notorious don.

 Jayaraj’s hallmark was robbery which  increased after his entry in to the Indira Brigade and he started a tabloid ‘Garibi Hatavo’ against corrupt cops. But on January 25, 1977, Jayaraj’s attack on an opponent in the court room changed his fate and he was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. The void created by Jayaraj’s absence was sought to be filled by Kotwal Ramchandra and ‘Oil Kumar’. After Jayaraj got out of jail, Oil Kumar tried to bump off Jayaraj by using Kotwal. When Jayaraj’s men were after him, Kotwal ended up falling in to Sreedhar’s hands, who sought revenge against Kotwal for the attack against his brother.

Dawood Ibrahim’s close aide Sharad Shetty was a close friend of Muthappa Rai, who eliminated Jayaraj and Oil Kumar. Rai later escaped to Dubai and to get in Dawood’s good books, he revealed Chhota Rajan’s location to Dawood so that he could eliminate him. In 2003, Chhota Rajan had Sharad Shetty shot. After being deported from Dubai, Rai decided to live a reformed life.

One of these dons was a die-hard Amitabh Bachchan fan, who roamed around the lanes of Shivajinagar wearing bell-bottoms that his matinee idol had popularised. Tanveer Ahmed was smitten by Bachchan after watching  Don, Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, Trishul and Mr Natwarlal .

 “Tanveer was particularly fascinated by Bachchan’s style of brandishing a gun or a knife on screen. Back then, Bengaluru was unfamiliar with the gun culture. Knives, choppers, machetes and swords that outlaws referred to as lambiwali were more common. Tanveer copied Bachchan’s fight sequences and began wielding his chopper in true filmy style,”.

When Bachchan’s Inquilaab released in theatres across India in 1984, Tanveer, then 22, rushed to Naga Theatre in Shivajinagar to watch it. “The serpentine queue at the ticket counter made him restless. He broke the queue hoodwinking others and soon got into an argument that took an ugly turn. Tanveer, who was armed with a sharp knife, stabbed one of his attackers in the heat of the moment. 

This was the first official criminal case registered against Tanveer. He then moved to Mumbai only to return to Bengaluru sometime later.

The book also deals with rowdy elements like , Bekkina Kannu Rajendra and Srirampura Kitty and how they spread terror in Bengaluru. Muthappa Rai, Agni Sreedhar and Tanveer are now a reformed bunch

 As evident from various incidents mentioned in the book, rowdies have been a supporting pillar to many political bodies and even been on front face at many occasions. The book expatiates on  bravery of many people who were part of police system;  it also raises serious questions on the effectiveness of the same system quoting various incidents where the dons lived a luxurious lives inside jails and used to be masterminds of organised crimes while being in police custody. The book also discusses the battle for supremacy and power that existed between various gangs of the underworld while pointing out their allegiance with one another. Overall it is a great read for crime and mystery readers.

 No one is a born Don or Bhai .It is life that makes them so. Anyway the road to Don—hood is open and  nurtured by rage, revenge and thirst for power which leads to “The Underworld”.

Besides the dons, Shelar has  thrown light on various events that played a vital role in the growth of rowdyism in Bengaluru. There is a bit about the kushti culture and how the pehelwans gradually veered into the darker alleys. There’s also a bit about how ardent Rajkumar fans would go on a rampage under the guise of love for the actor and the cause of Kannada language movement. One chapter is dedicated to  the art of  chain snatching while  riding a motorcycle. This  formed a peak  in the city’s policing history as the cops had never experienced such a modus operandi before.

 The Bengaluru dons were equally brutal and shrewd as their Mumbai brethren but they always had a plan. They played with swords and machetes but still dreamt of a white-collar life and even worked towards it. Two of the most notorious dons in Bengaluru are now living white-collar lives. This planning and intelligence take them a notch higher than the Mumbai dons, who are either on the run or behind bars.

Jayaraj had immense hatred for the police and he would take them on through his newspaper. He was killed in 1989 in a well-planned and executed murder. This was the first time Bengaluru woke up to gunshots and Mumbai bhais were called in for the job.

The book  will be to Bengaluru what  “Dongri to Dubai” is for Mumbai.

P.P.Ramachandran.

16/06/2019 .