Sabu by Author Debleena Majumdar, a book review: a well-researched account of a fascinating life

Sabu by Author Debleena Majumdar

The author Debleena Majumdar beautifully etches out the innocence and exuberance of young Sabu in Mysore even as his world changed completely when he got chosen to play the key role in the movie, The Elephant Boy. His journey to England, his ability to quickly learn the language and the nuances of the new country despite everything being completely new for him and his willingness to figure out a life for himself, far away from everything he had known so far, are detailed out, step by step.

And as his movie career took off, taking him from England to the US and to Hollywood; the detailed descriptions of the movies along with their reviews, make it an engaging and visual read. It delves into the fact that even as movies continued to make Sabu famous, their plotlines often explored imperialist ambitions of the time. Meanwhile, as Sabu got more fame and visibility, history was taking place in different ways, small and big. The Second World War broke out and England was in the thick of it. And back in India and the world Sabu had left behind, freedom from British rule no longer seemed like a distant dream. The author balances the narrative with the complicated shifts in history, the movies and make us wonder what it would have seemed like to Sabu, living through it at that time. And it shows the many hats that Sabu wore in his adult life, starting with a decision to fight for his adopted country, the US, in the World War, as an aerial gunner.

Beyond the broader changes in the movies, the story also delves into Sabu's own internal journey and the many interwoven chapters of his life. From finding love, to his deep bond with his brother to the later troubles that plagued him across court cases and the insipid movie roles that came his way. During these years, the book shows how somehow, his early and easy success of his youth years started eluding him. It makes you think about the fragile lives of people in tinsel town. Did Sabu start getting typecast in roles which required him to do little else than play the exotic foreigner? Or maybe the roles were not even titular but peripheral to the plot? Or maybe the world had changed so much after the war that people had moved on to newer experiences and needed newer films that brought out their changed realities. More than give the answers, the author makes us relive the questions.

As the book progresses, it shows how, with the responsibility now to provide for a family, a part of Sabu's mind kept thinking of practical ways to keep making money in case his movie career failed to deliver anymore. His stint in the circus, his happiness at becoming a father, his ability to set up his own business with his brother, his travel back home to India to try out for a potential iconic role and the subsequent heartbreaks that followed are all etched out beautifully.

The book talks about the years when tragedy hit Sabu in multiple ways and what made him keep trying to shake out of it, with multiple new shape shifting roles, in his real life.

And as you start reliving the life of the fascinating character, the book shows the sudden end of a talented life and the last time Sabu's enchanting smile lit up the silver screen.

The book was represented by the literary agency The Book Bakers and published by Locksley Hall Publishers.

Read the book if you love movies. Read it if you love history. And most of all, read it if you want to know the story of a man who reached both unimaginable fame and touched the depths of sorrow and how he navigated through it all.