Dongri to Dubai by S.

Hussain Zaidi
Review by Garvit Pahal

Dongri to Dubai is the first ever attempt to chronicle the history of the Mumbai mafia. It is the story of
notorious gangsters like Haji Mastan, Karim Lala, Varadarajan Mudaliar, Chhota Rajan, Abu Salem, but above
all, it is the story of a young man who went astray despite having a father in the police force. Dawood Ibrahim
was initiated into crime as a pawn in the hands of the Mumbai police and went on to wipe out the competition
and eventually became the Mumbai police's own nemesis.

If you search internet, you’ll find plethora of information on Dawood and the Mumbai underworld. But you
hardly get the complete picture of what the underworld is, and how it came into existence. Dongri to Dubai is
one book that fills the gap. The book begins with the period of 1950’s, and gradually moves on to the era of
smugglers like Hazi Mastan & Vardarajan Mudaliar, the menace of the Pathan gang, the short but dreadful
span of Manya Surve, and all these stories get interlinked with the making of Dawood Ibrahim, the gangster. It
also depicts how changing political scenarios like the Emergency, the enforcement of certain laws like MISA
and TADA, the establishment of Indian Spy Agency RAW and the Liberation policy of 1991 affected the
fortunes of the mafia. The book also depicts the state of Bollywood when it got unwillingly embroiled with D
Company. The book is full of anecdotes about how certain words came into mafia lingo - cultural origins of
Rampuri chaku (a long foldable knife with sharp edges on one side first used by the Rampuri gang), why a hit
job is referred to as ‘supari’ (betel nut) and a valorous man is referred to as ‘soorma’ (eyeliner). It is the most
comprehensive piece of work that must have required years of painstaking research and risky interviews with
the infamous and dreaded characters of the underworld. S. Hussain Zaidi deserves full credit for the
entertainment and information.

But S. Hussain Zaidi is a journalist and not an author, and this is apparent throughout the book. The book is full
of countless small stories that talk about the lives of different dons. Many of these stories prove to be a
distraction from the main story and unfortunately, there is not a lot of content for the main story. The book
also tries to portray Dawood Ibrahim as a larger than life character. Instead of focusing on the wrongdoings of
the Mumbai mafia, the book ends up portraying it as a glorified profession.

Overall, it is a fascinating history of the underworld. It may not be a racy thriller but the author manages to
keep you entertained and engrossed throughout.