‘Death of a Gentleman’: A largely fun, tongue-in-cheek satire about Mumbai’s elite

When I picked up Death of a Gentleman by Riva Razdan, I did not have high expectations of a book as generically titled, or by an author whose work experience included, amongst other things, being a screenwriter for Nadaaniyan. On the face of it, the plot summary seemed fairly uninspiring as well – estranged rich kid has achieved success independent of his father, who dumped him and his mother many years ago. Kid is engaged to another rich kid, things are finally looking up, but soon aforementioned father drops dead, and kid gets embroiled in the investigation.

A tortured anti-hero?

I was very pleasantly surprised. Death of a Gentleman picks up pace quickly, when Rana Khanna, the rich hotelier-cum-absentee father, seemingly dies of a heart attack in the middle of a fancy new eatery, in the presence of his second wife and younger son. Yuvraaj, the estranged older son, had just given a bombastic interview earlier in the day, bashing his dad, a sort of a “f*** you” to his father as his startup soared in evaluation with fresh funding, even as Rana’s hotel business is struggling to stay afloat.

To make matters worse for Yuvraaj, he was within walking distance of the scene of death on the night of....

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