Name Place Animal Thing

by Mayank Shekhar

Part rant, part reportage. Partly serious and partly funny. Name Place Animal Thing by top film critic Mayank Shekhar is a whacky yet insightful take on desis and popular culture. Covering concerns of a young, urban India, ranging from city, cinema, stardom, and religion to cops, cigarette smoking, social drinking, and social media, each piece has been peppered with Shekhar's characteristic wit and razor sharp observations to simultaneously inform, amuse, and irritate! If you wish to start a conversation, here's the book to pick.??

Genres: Nonfiction, Humor

416 pages, Paperback

Published December 30, 2015

Reviews

[Digant · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been following Mayank Shekhar since the last many years. I have always liked his writing and his bollywood film reviews. And so when I came to know about this book written by him, I was only happy to read it. Major chunk of the book focuses on bollywood, so I had hardly any reason to complain, being a hardcore bollywood fan myself.

"Part rant, part reportage. Partly serious and partly funny" is what the book is described. The book stays fully faithful to its one-line description. These are pleasant observations which the author has observed over a couple of years. Some of these observations are hilarious, while some are thought-provokingly accurate and real, showing us a glaring reflection of our society.

It is such a relief to see a book written by someone who has good command over language and grammar. Of course, for someone who has been a journalist for so long, these things are not applicable – they have super control over their English, unlike the herd of writers who have emerged nowadays whose books have glaring grammatical errors right from page 1.

Mayank's writing style is excellent. He is sharp, witty and writes in a way that doesn't bore the reader. Further, he adds his own personal anecdotes and experiences which makes it more interesting.
Each chapter is precise without any unnecessary rant/reportage. Mayank covers a wide variety of topics ranging from Bollywood, music, his experiences in various cities, his views on various people of the film industry and his views on the changing patterns in the world with time.

[Karthik S V · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice, breezy read but a little too many Bollywood pieces for my liking and the one on smoking was annoying. Pretty much fun otherwise and contemplative too at times.

[Carol Guthrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought that I was hooked after reading the quotation by Robert Heinlein after the book dedication. I struggled through Chapter 1 as I tried to discern the intent of the author. By the middle of Chapter 2, I began to skim. The stories seemed scripted and wordy. I made it to the Afterword and have decided that I would have preferred that the author focus on facts and true stories - cut the dialogue. My overall impression is that the reader is encouraged to make their life something they can be proud of living - to find happiness amidst life's storms.

[Malcolm Carvalho · Rating 4 out of 5]

Insightful. Funny. An oxymoron. Some pieces sound like the outsider looking in, some like an insider looking out, his face pressed to the looking glass. From pop-culture (read movies, music snobs, narcissism on Facebook / Twitter / Youtube) to more serious matters like the class divide, the need for validation and the quest for real happiness, Mayank Shekhar writes with a conversational style. You could just breeze through this book in a couple of hours.

Don't be fooled by the easy language; it sounds flippant, yet the questions do provoke pensive thought.

[Karan Gupte · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all, I won this on a Goodreads Giveaway. Well, actually, my sister did. So with that out of the way, the book is an awesome read!!!! Got to know the various eccentricities of the Indian people across the nation. I recommend this to everyone who love to rack up info on various cultures & practices of modern India, both traditional & contemporary.

[Abhinav · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of award-winning journalist Mayank Shekhar's ramblings/meditations on matters of pop culture & this mad, mad country of ours. Full of experiences, anecdotes & erudite opinions, this book is well worth a read.

3.5 to 4 stars.

[Neeraj Tulsyan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Some books are so horrible and badly written that all you need is one chapter.