SodaBottleOpenerWala, your quintessential Bombay Irani Café with all its idiosyncrasies in place hosted a book reading evening of first Indian children’s movie novelization: Dhanak. The novelisation is by award-winning author Anushka Ravishankar based on the script and screenplay by the award-winning director and producer Nagesh Kukunoor. Both Anushka Ravishankar and Nagesh Kukunoor read out few sections from the book. The cast and crew of Dhanak also interacted with guests and enjoyed Irani Special Chai and Mumbai’s snack menu at SodaBottleOpenerWala.

The story of Dhanak

Chotu is blind, but it doesn’t bother him much. His sister Pari helps him with everything. Besides, she’s promised him she’ll get him his eyesight back before his ninth birthday. And that’s just a couple of months away! Pari is worried. How will she keep her promise? When she sees a poster with Shahrukh Khan, her hero, saying ‘Donate your eyes’, she writes to him, asking him to help Chotu. And then she hears that Shahrukh is in Rajasthan for a shoot! So Pari and Chotu set off on a road trip to meet Shahrukh and get Chotu’s eyesight back. Through adventure and misadventure, and aided and hindered by a cast of bizarre, friendly, colourful and hostile people, the two children traverse across the desert to try to make their dream come true.

About the book

Dhanak is the first Indian novelization of a children’s film, published by Duckbill. While it is common for novels to be transformed into movies, the reverse is not popular in India. KA Abbas has done done novelization of his films Bobby and Mera Naam Joker, but there are few other examples. The book includes eight pages of colour photographs and also interviews with Hetal Gada and Krrish Chabria, who play the siblings.

About the authors

Nagesh Kukunoor’s debut film Hyderabad Blues (1998) was a landmark indie film of its time. Since then, he has written, directed and produced several films—including Iqbal, Rockford, Bollywood Calling, 3 Deewarein, Dor and Lakshmi, among others—which have won critical acclaim and many awards in India and internationally. Anushka Ravishankar is the author of several award-winning books. She has written more than thirty books—verse, fiction and non-fiction—many of which have been translated into several languages.