However, this was the second time that a Merchant Ivory film led me to buy another book written by the author who had originally birthed the (Merchant Ivory) movie script and left me somewhat disappointed. (The other pair being a delightfully delicious movie called ‘The Householder’ and an incredibly underwhelming book called ‘Heat & Dust’ by Ruth Praber Jhabwala, who had also written the book – “The Householder”.) “Under a monsoon cloud” is much better than “Heat & Dust” but it is still relatively underwhelming when you compare its material to the delightfully timeless movie (“The Perfect Murder”). Keating does describe the India of a generation ago and the scruples of the average Indian family man in Inspector Ghote beautifully but the plot never really takes off.
The only reason I liked the book even though the plot never really got interesting enough was for Keating’s writing style and his creation of the honest middle class police inspector, which made me nostalgic of the simpler times India had, decades ago.
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