Contemporary Authors

• View from the Edge ( exhibition catalogue) Synergy Art Foundation (Mumbai, India), 1995
• Artist, Undone ( novel) Hachette India (Gurgaon, India), 2012
• Virgin Gingelly ( novel) Hachette India (London, England), 2014

1. The third squad LCCN 2016935087 Type of material Book Personal name Sanjay Kumar, V. (Art director) Main title The third squad / V. Sanjay Kumar. Published/Produced Brooklyn, New York : Akashic Books, [2017]. Description 284 pages ; 21 cm ISBN 9781617754975 (paperback) 1617754978 (paperback) CALL NUMBER Copy 1 Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms 2. Amitava : the complete works LCCN 2013413496 Type of material Book Personal name Das, Amitava, 1947- artist. Uniform title Works Main title Amitava : the complete works / project editor, Kishore Singh ; authors, Roobina Karode, Amrita Gupta Singh, V. Sanjay Kumar. Published/Produced New Delhi : Delhi Art Gallery, 2013. Description 208 pages, 1 unnumbered page : color illustrations ; 29 cm ISBN 9789381217276 CALL NUMBER ND1010.D26 A4 2013 CABIN BRANCH Copy 1 Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms - STORED OFFSITE 3. View from the edge LCCN 95905193 Type of material Book Main title View from the edge / [edited by] V. Sanjay Kumar. Published/Created Bombay : Synergy Art Foundation, c1995. Description 88 p. : chiefly ill. (some col.) ; 26 x 32 cm. CALL NUMBER ND1004 .V54 1995 Copy 1 Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms

• Akashic Books - http://www.akashicbooks.com/author/v-sanjay-kumar/

  V. Sanjay Kumar
  V. Sanjay Kumar
  V. SANJAY KUMAR runs an art gallery and writes about art for various magazines. His two previous novels—Artist, Undone and Virgin Gingelly—take place in the bustling cities of Mumbai and Chennai (where Kumar grew up), exploring the fringes of middle-class life there. The Third Squad is his most recent novel.
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• Deccan Chronicle - http://www.deccanchronicle.com/lifestyle/books-and-art/140617/an-inadvertent-explorer-i-observe-people-and-overhear-conversations-v-sanjay-kumar.html

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  LIFESTYLE, BOOKS AND ART
  An inadvertent explorer, I observe people and overhear conversations: V Sanjay Kumar
  DECCAN CHRONICLE. | DYUTI BASU
  Published Jun 14, 2017, 12:20 am ISTUpdated Jun 14, 2017, 12:20 am IST

  In an interview, he takes us through the process of writing his book.
  This time, he explores Mumbai through his latest crime novel, The Third Squad.
  This time, he explores Mumbai through his latest crime novel, The Third Squad.
  Author V. Sanjay Kumar, often uses the buzz of a city as a backdrop. This time, he explores Mumbai through his latest crime novel, The Third Squad. Calling himself an inadvertent explorer, the writer explains that walking through these cities gave him the space to find answers and form his novel. In an interview, he takes us through the process of writing his book.

  When did the idea for the book germinate?
  In the beginning, there were characters, in this case three policemen. I wrote them, spent time with them, allowed them thereafter to shape the narrative. The plot evolved organically. My first draft was merely a stepping-stone to the second, the second to the third. I can safely say the core idea of the book took shape in the third draft. Five years had passed by this time.

  Does inspiration strike you at the oddest of moments/places?
  A degree of immersion is essential for inspiration. I was neck deep into the manuscript, and at the time I had titled it Blood Cinema — inspired by a sculpture by Anish Kapoor bearing this name. Then the idea hit me. There was no looking back after that. The narrative changed, as did the title.

  a

  You usually set your books in specific city backdrops. How intrinsic is the city backdrop to your plot?
  The city is everything. The city is the writer Italo Calvino’s muse as well. In his book Invisible Cities he said, ‘You take delight not in a city’s seven or seventy wonders, but in the answer it gives to a question of yours.’

  I have questions, many of them, and they arise when I walk the streets of cities like Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi and Kolkata. I am an inadvertent explorer; I observe people and overhear conversations. These days, I measure my walks in sentences. Each sentence triggers a paragraph, sometimes a page.

  Which book do you keep revisiting time and again?
  I like to go back now and then to The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz. I don’t have to read all of it. A page or two is enough.

  Tags: p.v. sanjay kumar

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• Blue Frog - http://www.bluefrog.co.in/events/book-launch-artist-undone-v-sanjay-kumar

  Book Launch Of 'Artist, Undone' By V. Sanjay Kumar
  TAGS Conference
  Organizer
  blueFROG
  When
  5th May 2012
  07:00PM - 08:30PM
  Where
  @ blueFROG - Lower Parel, Mumbai
  the bluefrog
  ,
  D/2 Mathuradas Mills Compound
  N.M. Joshi Marg, Lower Parel
  Mumbai
  400 013
  India
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  this event to share? Let us know
  More videos on Frog Player
  All about Book Launch Of 'Artist, Undone' By V. Sanjay Kumar

  ABOUT THE BOOK

  'I can see where you are going. Up shit creek… with a paddle.
  'He was right. That is where I was going.
  It was the kind of thing that my analyst had always warned me against: 'You are at an inflexion point, in a mood to do the irrational and the irreverent.
  'He forgot irreversible.

  Harsh Sinha – ‘Fat, F**ked and Forty’ – is so moved by a painting bearing this name and a compelling likeness to him, that he spends a large chunk of his life’s savings on it. Announcing a year-long sabbatical from his advertising job in Mumbai, he returns to Chennai to his wife and daughter, determined to spend quality time with them.

  Sadly, his wife Gayathri no longer wants him; she is more interested in the artist next door. The artist, Newton Kumaraswamy, is an inveterate womanizer and a famous thief – his every work an ode to that acknowledged master, Francis Newton Souza. With no job to return to, and no family to lean on, Harsh returns to Mumbai to let himself freefall further into the seductive world of contemporary Indian art and artists… Sharp, rough, and written with biting candour, Artist, Undone is a beguiling narrative of one man’s understanding of the creation, the commerce, and the critiquing of contemporary art. It is also a montage of lives changed – mauled, redefined, and occasionally, redeemed – by it.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  V. Sanjay Kumar was born in Karaikudi, grew up in Chennai, and worked long hours in Mumbai setting up small enterprises that stayed small. In the year of his marriage he broke free of his baniya roots, stumbled into the art world and allowed art to empty his pockets and artists to mess with his mind. This first book is sweet revenge.

  · A unique debut novel that treads the line between art and literature, fact and fiction
  · Written with candour and honesty by an insider
  · An extremely fresh voice in Indian writing, one that does not preach or patronize
  · Works of art and paintings accompany the text, adding to the narrative and giving the book a new flavour
  less

• Take on Art Magazine - http://www.takeonartmagazine.com/article-details/225

  CONVERSATION WITH V SANJAY KUMAR

  Sunil Gawde, Fly Away, Swim Closer, 2008. Image courtesy: V Sanjay Kumar and Sakshi Gallery
  by Ina Puri

  An avid collector of art, Chennai based V Sanjay Kumar’s investment in the arts extends much beyond collecting. A management professional from IIM Ahmedabad, having worked in the corporate sector and as an investment banker, besides setting up his own software business in the banking space, he has also been a business partner with one of the premier galleries in India, Sakshi Gallery, since 1988. Over the last 25 years, this art space based in Mumbai has promoted many successful artists and hosted some notable shows in India and overseas. A writer of fiction and non-fiction, V Sanjay Kumar has published two novels, Artist Undone and Virgin Gingelly with Hachette India. Even with the pen, he has remained committed to his interest in the arts – Artist Undone was set in the art world, and his non-fiction View from the Edge, was based on a themed art exhibition that he curated in 1995. Ina Puri, who has known him for a long time, converses with him on his collecting practices for TAKE.
  Ina Puri (IP): Congratulations! Your artwork by Riyas Komu has made it to the cover of the latest issue of India Today. When did you acquire the work?
  V Sanjay Kumar (SK): It is a series of six works and each work is large (9 feet x 6 feet) and I did not really care at the time that displaying the set of six would need a space that a house of mine would probably never have. But that hope persists. It was much later that they were chosen to be at the Venice Biennale. I have lived with one of these works for quite a while and have never tired of looking at it up on the wall. In fact, coincidentally, I have a photograph from 2011-12 that captures all of them.
  IP: We have often met up at art fairs and biennales, quite by chance. I always meant to actually ask you (earlier) if you ever made a random acquisition at any time...decided impulsively to possess the work that caught your eye? Say, at the Documenta? Or Basel?

  2 Kali Yug (Future times),
  Digital print on canvas mounted on board,
  sculptural elements covered in black velvet, 2010.
  Image courtesy: V Sanjay Kumar and Sakshi Gallery
  SK: I find it very difficult to buy works at art fairs because a lot of it is safe work, established work and familiar in many ways. There is no surprise. The display and the commotion also distracts, and compare that to the gallery experience – when you enter a quiet, private space and spend time without anyone jostling you, handing you cards, sizing you up or asking if you need anything. But then, the energy at these bazaars is a spur. In good market conditions you can feel that the hunt is on and I like observing these alpha collectors who roam around with acquisitive eyes, taking down everything and making choices. At each of the last two India Art Fairs I bought a work by Somnath Hore – one was a paper pulp work and the other a plate, and these were rare works and I could decide instantly. At the Taiwan fair I picked up a sculpture by Stephan Balkenhol, because I had just purchased two works by Ravi Shah. At Art Basel, I made inquiries about a Shirin Neshat video, a Yayoi Kusama installation and a small dwelling sculpted by Louise Bourgeois and once I heard about the prices, I realised they weren’t in my range. Since then I have thankfully not returned to Art Basel.
  No acquisition is random. I used to take a lot of time deciding in my early collecting, but of late I have sometimes surprised people by saying yes on the spot. The universe of works I respond to is not very large and it is getting progressively smaller which is just as well, and most fairs have just a handful of works that interest me and some none at all.
  IP: At your elegantly appointed home in Chennai, I was very impressed in equal measures by the traditional architecture (of the house) and your contemporary art collection. Would you agree that aesthetics has no real quarrel with diverse time periods?
  SK: In a sense a good aesthetic is timeless even if something belongs distinctly to a time and space, and sometimes feels ‘dated’ in the broadest sense of the term. Labelling with words like ‘traditional’, ‘modern’ and ‘contemporary’ is a fraught enterprise and perhaps helps historians, curators and auction houses more than a collector like me. I have bought FN Souza and I am buying Valay Shende, and they stand next to each other. I can see a Sunil Gawde sculpture installed next to a Chola bronze and they can have a reasonably engaging dialogue without going into relative merits. In fact, when I see a Chola bronze I realise the sheer futility of labelling, that reductive process which brings words to the table to facilitate understanding and commerce. I think aesthetics has a quarrel with description more than anything else.
  IP: Would you say that it gives you an edge – as a collector, the fact that you are a part of Synergy? You have had the most outstanding artists associated with you down the years and an opportunity to select a work before other collectors got the chance to see it!
  SK: I cannot but agree or say it better. I caught the modern artists tailwind and was privileged to meet the likes of MF Husain, VS Gaitonde, Tyeb Mehta and FN Souza. And then as part of Sakshi, we were engaged with the generation that preceded the contemporaries, and these are too many to name. And then we were among the first to move with the contemporaries, even before Chemould, Art Heritage, Pundole and the others. There was just Lakeeren and us in the contemporary space at the time. So yes, it was unique and it was an unparalleled opportunity. But my colleague Geetha Mehra held the cards and as a buyer I had to compete. But I did impress her with my intent and often the stuff I ran after had no queues.
  IP: Tell us a bit about your collection, from when you first began. Who are the artists you still yearn to have in your collection?
  SK: My first significant acquisition was a Jogen Chowdhury crosshatch work. I bought KG Subramanyan, C Douglas, Amitava Das and Shibu Natesan in the early days. Then Surendran Nair, Anandajit Ray, Prabhakar Barwe, Bhupen Khakhar and K Ramanujam. I missed out on the early works of Jitish Kallat and if possible, I would have loved to buy a whole show of his. Now, I have none at all.
  IP: Is there an artist in your collection you have been nurturing from early days?
  SK: There is a significant representation of some artists like Ramanujam, KG Subramanyan, C Douglas, Anandajit Ray and Amitava Das but my approach is not to have to buy with any consistency but to react to specific works. So additions have been very sporadic. I track many artists and sometimes I buy just one work (like one of Anita Dube) and then I find it hard to add to it because what I have seems replete.
  IP: What would you do if the work appeared dated? Or if you tire of it?
  SK: Most of my initial purchases were lemons, but luckily my learning curve was steep, thanks partly to Geetha Mehra. I have disposed the early buys ruthlessly. Once the collection took shape, I felt pruning was essential and it was important to keep raising the bar. I have fallen out of love with some artists (however well known) and if what I had was not significant, I have parted with those works. Sometimes I substitute work of artists. I see the pruning process continuing and at some point I hope the collection will have only the significant and the rare.
  IP: With regard to your personal collection, have you ever bought an artwork as an investment?
  SK: My personal collecting has been without calculation. In fact most times I do not negotiate hard (as I have seen others do) and if a work meets my eye I just go out and get it. I do ensure the pricing is not out of line and being in the business, I have a feel for market prices. Most of my buying is early stage and I am not a secondary market buyer or someone who goes into an auction and waves a paddle. The few times I have bought at auctions it has been online, say a photograph by Shirin Neshat or one by Ralph Eugene Meatyard. I do love a good deal however, and every once in a while one comes along like this work by Shahzia Sikander, which for some unknown reason did not find a buyer in a Sotheby’s auction.
  The fact that a number of works in my collection will not find too many buyers even today does not disturb me. Everybody need not buy into my vision.
  IP: I remember that last exhibition of Manjit Bawa’s in London which we were all a part of, you really wanted a miniature but held back because there were other collectors, equally desperate... you had consoled yourself by telling Manjit you would wait for another time. He went into a coma soon after, were you able to find another Manjit afterwards?
  SK: Yes, luckily I was able to get this Ganesha miniature by Manjit, which I treasure. But the one I could not get rankles too. There were many other works by Manjit that were special and while it is futile, I cannot help ruing the fact that I do not have more of his work. Manjit was special and it was a privilege to know him and see his work ethic, and the standards he set in the process of painting. I keep an eye on the resale market for his work.
  IP: Your full-time passion is now writing, having published two books already, would you still regard yourself as an avid collector?
  SK: I keep in touch with the art world in many ways and even more so than earlier. I try and attend openings, I am there at the India Art Fair every year, I drop in at the odd symposium/discussion to see if I can understand anything, and I look through most auction material in India, and some post-War works and contemporary art overseas. I also keep track of a number of overseas artists and even if I have not acquired works by all of them, I stay tuned in to what they are up to. These days, I am an avid collector in my mind. I dream of a collection that has Ana Mendieta, Francesca Woodman and Eva Hesse. In the meanwhile, I look at every young artist closely. I want younger artists to surprise me and someday I hope to do what I have done in the past, which is buy a whole show.
  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Ina Puri is an arts impresario, curator and writer. In her capacity as a film producer she won the National Award for her documentary on Manjit Bawa.

  + R

8/13/17, 8(03 AM
Print Marked Items
The Third Squad
Thomas Gaughan
Booklist.
113.11 (Feb. 1, 2017): p27. From Book Review Index Plus.
COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Full Text:
The Third Squad.
By V. Sanjay Kumar.
Mar. 2017. 240p. (9781617755101); Akashic, paper, $15.95 (9781617754975).
The euphemistic term "extrajudicial killings," currently most often applied to the Philippine president's war on drugs, was sanctioned by police in Mumbai in the very recent past, and the practice is at the heart of Kumar's gripping thriller. The novel's primary character, Karan, has a mild form of Asperger's syndrome, and a police official charged with developing a new squad of police "encounter" specialists senses that traits manifested by "Aspies" will produce successful, disciplined killers. Karan also demonstrates peerless marksmanship and proceeds to dispatch dozens of crime bosses, warlords, and hit men until he begins to question his actions. Kumar has created some thoroughly intriguing characters, including Karan, of course, and Nandini, his wife, but also a psychologist who is an expert on "Aspies" and who is getting rich from a porn website he created. But the most fascinating of Kumar's characters is Mumbai itself--enormous, crowded, hyperactive, roiling, stunningly rich and grindingly poor, and teeming with almost unfathomable energy. International-crime fans should flock to this one.--Thomas Gaughan
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Gaughan, Thomas. "The Third Squad." Booklist, 1 Feb. 2017, p. 27. PowerSearch, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=GPS&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA481244800&it=r&asid=58ddc36ce1e0c3796e561f901e883490. Accessed 13 Aug. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A481244800
about:blank Page 1 of 6
8/13/17, 8(03 AM
The Third Squad
Publishers Weekly.
264.5 (Jan. 30, 2017): p179. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
The Third Squad
V. Sanjay Kumar. Akashic, $15.95 trade paper (240p) ISBN 978-1-61775-497-5
Karan, the hero of this murky noir from Kumar (Artist, Undone), is an "encounter specialist" with the Third Squad, a special branch of the Mumbai police. The branch furthers the cause of justice by carrying out hits on the most egregious criminals. Karan, a new recruit with infallible aim, has Asperger's, which makes him particularly suited to the black-and-white world of his job--until that same binary sense of right and wrong leads him to directly disobey a kill order, because it matters to him whom he shoots. Written in the first and third person (with one foray into second person), the overly dense narrative and its many threads provide occasionally confusing insights into Karan. One of the more interesting characters is Mumbai, which Kumar evokes with lyrical prose ("In the night the city yields to the will of those who hold remorse for ransom. This city of noir sleeps at dawn. The night's debris waits for the tide"). (Mar.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"The Third Squad." Publishers Weekly, 30 Jan. 2017, p. 179. PowerSearch, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=GPS&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA480195170&it=r&asid=1d8ffd6e8407719a43c0dbe331fe2085. Accessed 13 Aug. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A480195170
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Kumar, V. Sanjay: THE THIRD SQUAD
Kirkus Reviews.
(Jan. 1, 2017): From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Kumar, V. Sanjay THE THIRD SQUAD Akashic (Adult Fiction) $15.95 3, 7 ISBN: 978-1-61775-497-5
A melancholy cop's obsessions are just the tip of the iceberg as he leads a two-fisted team determined to clean up Mumbai's mean streets.The four men who make up the title team originally meet at police headquarters outside Pune, India. Sharpshooting Karan, who narrates much of the novel in grim, hard-boiled prose, leads the squad, which also includes Munna, Tapas, and Kumaran. Any notion Karan might have of serving the greater good is obliterated after a few months as the quartet is turned into contract killers for the police. Several chapters resemble short stories devoted to the assassination of individual crime figures. As the squad settles into its nasty business, Karan's loyal wife, Nandini, seeing a coarsening in her husband, worries about this new assignment. Pregnancy makes her more guarded but no less worried. Karan's boss, Ranvir Pratap, the compulsive larger-than-life character who put the squad together, is under constant administrative fire that prompts him to construct a hilarious set of "Criteria" for the hiring of squad members. Karan's demeanor and his resulting reputation may stem from the fact that he has Asperger's syndrome, a condition that entitles him (and us) to be treated to a pedantic explanation of the syndrome as well as an amusing 48- question survey. Can this crack team keep from cracking up as they rack up the kills? Kumar's (Virgin Gingelly, 2013, etc.) style, blunt but often by turns poetic and droll, is arresting even as his idiosyncratic plot roams far and wide, switching perspectives and pursuing twisty subplots with vigor. As unusual as it is compelling, this entry lays the groundwork for an entertaining series.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Kumar, V. Sanjay: THE THIRD SQUAD." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Jan. 2017. PowerSearch, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=GPS&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA475357487&it=r&asid=4bca9658e2909bea07055467d4061bfa. Accessed 13 Aug. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A475357487
about:blank Page 3 of 6
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Corruption goes global
Jordan Foster
Publishers Weekly.
263.47 (Nov. 21, 2016): p30. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
A look at insidious, crooked coppers around the world Norway
The Fifth Element
Jargen Brekke. Minotaur, Feb. 2017 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
In Brekke's third Trondheim-set series installment featuring police inspector Odd Singsaker, Singsaker struggles to uncover who murdered his wife. According to Brekke, a "corrupt policeman, who at the same time is a broken down, disillusioned, and nihilistic individual," helps to form the core of the story along with Singsaker, himself accused of misconduct and violent behavior. Though he sees Element as a character-driven tale, Brekke is quick to point out that "police brutality is, sadly, a recurring issue even in small, democratic, and relatively peaceful societies such as [Norway]."
Scotland
Every Night I Dream of Hell
Malcolm Mackay. Mulholland, Apr. 2017
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
"The police force will always be, to some extent, a reflection of the society it serves," Scottish author Malcolm Mackay says, "and sometimes society is a horrible, violent, prejudiced embarrassment." Even though Mackay's novels deal primarily with organized crime, his Glaswegian coppers don't come off looking any better than the criminals
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they're meant to be chasing. Perhaps that's because, according to Mackay, he's "writing about the corruption of the people who should be fighting it, police lured into working against the very people they're supposed to protect, out of greed or stupidity."
Rather Be the Devil
Ian Rankin. Little, Brown, Jan. 2017
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
In Edinburgh, Rankin's now semiretired Det. John Rebus--celebrating 30 years on the page in 2017--is king. The character, who's known for bending the rules, isn't opposed to doing whatever's necessary to get the job done, regardless of the cost. Things have changed over his three decades on the force, though. "Readers like their fictional mavericks and outsiders," Rankin says. "But those good old bad old days are not the ones I want to return to in the real world--I like to think that cops know they can't get away with the tricks they used to pull." The Rebus of 2017 is a far cry from the hard-drinking detective of 1987's Knots & Crosses. But he still gets results.
Northern Ireland
Police at the Station and They Don't Look Friendly
Adrian McKinty. Seventh Street, Mar. 2017 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Nothing quite says "bad old days" like being a cop in Belfast during the 1980s at the height of the Troubles, the setting for Adrian McKinty's Sean Duffy series. "When you're dealing with the RUC [Royal Ulster Constabulary], possibly-- along with the South African police--the most controversial police force in the world in the '70s and '80s," McKinty says, "you can't ignore the issues of racism, sectarianism, shoot-to-kill, brutality, and corruption." And Belfast in the 1980s was "such an insane Blade Runner-like world of soldiers and police, daily riots, rain, and terrorist attacks," McKinty says.
India
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The Third Squad
V. Sanjay Kumar. Akashic, Mar. 2017 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
In The Third Squad, Indian author V. Sanjay Kumar's novel focusing on the extrajudicial assassinations of suspected criminals that took place in Mumbai 20 years ago, it was important to Kumar not only to tell a socially relevant story but also, he says, to depict "my city, my Mumbai, the one left behind by the hollow promises of neoliberalism and progress." The relationship between the police and the citizens of India is fraught, Kumar says, and "petty corruption is widespread in all walks of life, including the police force." Telling individual stories can illuminate larger systemic issues, as evidenced in Squad. Ibrahim Ahmad, editorial director at Akashic, calls Squad "a character study of a cop developing a sense of right and wrong in the face of systemic, wholesale corruption--almost like an Indian Serpico."-- J.F.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Foster, Jordan. "Corruption goes global." Publishers Weekly, 21 Nov. 2016, p. 30. PowerSearch,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do? p=GPS&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA471273910&it=r&asid=8006fcdc0a5934c70854860b2dd50d6b. Accessed 13 Aug. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A471273910
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Gaughan, Thomas. "The Third Squad." Booklist, 1 Feb. 2017, p. 27. PowerSearch, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=GPS&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA481244800&it=r. Accessed 13 Aug. 2017. "The Third Squad." Publishers Weekly, 30 Jan. 2017, p. 179. PowerSearch, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do? p=GPS&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA480195170&it=r. Accessed 13 Aug. 2017. "Kumar, V. Sanjay: THE THIRD SQUAD." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Jan. 2017. PowerSearch, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=GPS&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA475357487&it=r. Accessed 13 Aug. 2017. Foster, Jordan. "Corruption goes global." Publishers Weekly, 21 Nov. 2016, p. 30. PowerSearch, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=GPS&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA471273910&it=r. Accessed 13 Aug. 2017.

• The Arts Trust
  http://www.theartstrust.com/Magazine_article.aspx?articleid=436
  Word count: 962

  Book Review
  ‘Artist, Undone’ by V. Sanjay Kumar
  Protagonist of an arty fictional account, frizzled and frustrated Harsh Sinha decides to take a year-long break from his frenzied advertising career in Mumbai, finally abdicating his role of a weekend husband and father. While planning his sabbatical after almost eight years, he comes across a work by Natraj Sharma, ‘Fat, Fucked and Forty’ that grips him. Hooked by it, he instinctively grabs it for Rs 2.7 million. Desperate to be with his family, and also flaunt his new proud possession to his wife living with their daughter, he rushes to Chennai. But fate has something else in store for him…

  His wife simply refuses to accommodate him sans any explanation. The hapless husband is now jobless and homeless, anchorless and rudderless in life. To make a living, he decides to sell the painting as a temporary solution. And that’s when things start taking strange turns, as readers discover them one by one, as they become a part of Harsh Sinha’s tryst with the world of art.

  A gripping novel, ‘Artist, Undone’ by V.Sanjay Kumar (Publishers: Hachette India; Pages: 240; Price: Rs 495), builds tantalizing human drama, using contemporary Indian art as an apt backdrop, subtly dealing with its nuances instead of indulging in a liner ‘fact finding’. Having closely been associated with top artists and galleries, the author weaves frailties of human nature and emotions into perplexing ways of the art world. The book released a couple of months ago during an exhibition of modern & contemporary Indian art at Sakshi Art Gallery Chennai contains a fine blend of fact and fiction that grips readers with a dramatic chain of events, especially after Harsh Sinha visits a number of galleries to find a buyer for his painting.

  Throwing light on the ensuing drama, an introduction narrates: “Harsh Sinha – ‘Fat, F**ked and Forty’ – moved by a painting bearing this name and a compelling likeness to him, spends a large chunk of his life’s savings on it. He wants to return to his wife and daughter, to spend quality time with them. Sadly, she no longer wants him - more interested in Newton Kumaraswamy, the artist next door, whose every work is an ode to Francis Newton Souza. With no job to turn to, and no family to lean on, Harsh returns to Mumbai to let himself freefall further into the seductive world of contemporary Indian art and artists!”

  Sharp, rough, and written with biting candor, the book comes across as a beguiling narrative of one man’s understanding of the creation, the commerce and the critiquing of contemporary art. It is also a montage of lives changed – mauled, redefined and occasionally redeemed – by it. In a series of subplots we come across some American students trying to gather more information about Newton Kumaraswamy impressed by his debut solo in New York, a fellow Coromandal Artists’ Village painter Gopi, and a mobile handsets dealer tracking Newton’s activities, among other characters. There is a mélange of human emotions – love and passion, incest and false morality. The narrative smartly swivels between the cities of Chennai, Mumbai, New Delhi and New York, invading many other mental spaces, switching from one time warp to another – encompassing different people and places.

  ‘Artist, Undone’ makes succinct observations on our perceptions of art. For example, Harsh Sinha quips at one point: ‘People buy art for aesthetics, for vanity, for pomp, for splendor, for peer-level masturbation, for a lark, to try to belong, to make money, because they can’t say no, because they can’t stop, because for a public rush of blood, for the rush that possession gives, for nostalgia, for the sheer joy of buying…’ Maintaining the fine line between non-fiction and fiction has been a challenging, albeit fascinating experience for V. Sanjay Kumar (the Director of Sakshi Gallery) whom Geetha Mehra describes as a valued colleague, while applauding his ability to skillfully weave events around the domain of art through recognizable and some purely fictional characters.

  It’s difficult to write about art sans any visuals about art, hence the concept of infusing images in account, explains the author, who reveals in an interview: “I want people to come into the art world and just be what they are, and to have their freedom, to be fearless in terms of how they respond, to find themselves, so to speak, by looking at the art world. That’s the crux of the book, how people find themselves by exploring the art world.” His aim has been to build characters navigating that real space so that the reader can feel, ‘Well! This could be me.’

  The idea is not to get judgmental about them, but to let people make up their own perspective and experience. According to JohnyML, an interesting aspect of the novel is the inbuilt discussion on issues regarding plagiarism, adoption, influence, inspiration, co-optation and such phrases involved in the discourse of contemporary Indian art, Revealing how the book deals with the idea of originality, the renowned art critic points out: “Without entering into the theoretical blabbering, the author raises this issue of originality through his protagonists. So is his scathing criticism on the state of art critical writings. In his characteristic narrative style, he quotes critics like Ranjit Hoskote and Geeta Kapur and debates whether lucid writing is still a dream in the Indian art criticism.”

  As the pieces shift and fit in the kaleidoscopic jigsaw of the confused and cunning characters, the novelist elucidates how art is closely connected with the new aspiring class of modern Indian society, viscerally tied to real life vicissitudes.

• 100 plths
  https://100paths.com/2012/02/21/book-review-artist-undone-by-v-sanjay-kumar/
  Word count: 593

  Book review: ‘Artist, Undone’ by V Sanjay Kumar
  February 21, 2012Aekta Kapoor
  When I first read Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger, I was blown away by a feeling that can only be described as, “Wow, I have never ever read anything like this before. What a book.” It left me shaken and disturbed in all the wrong places, while also marvelling at the piece of true literary beauty I had just had the privilege to read.

  I won’t say V Sanjay Kumar’s first novel Artist, Undone had an equal impact on me but it did remind me of The White Tiger in that I felt the same feeling of, “Wow, I have never ever read anything like this before. What a book,” when I put it down.

  It begins with the story of Harsh Sinha, who describes himself as ‘fat, fucked and forty’ and has a penchant for visiting analysts. Harsh impulsively buys a hugely expensive painting simply because the person in it looks like him, and ends up losing his job, home, wife and daughter in the process. But the book is also about various other characters: his wife Gayathri (emotional, wilful, tough, vulnerable) and the Casanova artist she proceeds to have an affair with, the inventive plagiarist Newton Kumaraswamy, who paints people’s ‘private parts’ (you gotta love the double entendre there). There’s Roongta, who doggedly aspires to understand the business of art, and Manoj Tyaagi, the conman (‘naami chor‘) who buys Newton’s work by the dozen simply because he can. There’s Bhairavi, the curator who spots talent using something far more sublime than mere intelligence. There’s Jahan, the polio-afflicted American student who returns to India in search of both feet and wings, and his crush, the nymph Lisa, who seems to arouse scandals and men’s genitals every time she moves.

  Most of all, there is art. Kumar uses paintings by well-known and lesser known artists to illustrate the story in colour (all due credits are given at the end). His characters research art, explain art, understand and misunderstand art, and lead their lives around the pursuit of the elusive ‘deeper meaning’ that afflicts regular people everywhere, whether in art or life. The characters are so well fleshed out that they could just be someone you know… (When I researched Sanjay Kumar online, I got this person who was in prison for securities fraud. The inspiration for Manoj Tyaagi?) … or someone the writer seems to know suspiciously well. The casual mention of names of real-life artists and writers only manages to blur further the line between fact and fiction; you never know when one ends and the other begins. As someone who seems equally adept at art, literature and business, Kumar is both condescending and compassionate in the expression of his knowledge. The reader is left to make her way about with a sense of both mild indignation and marvel.

  At the end, as in Adiga’s astounding debut, you don’t feel a sympathy for the characters; there are no heroes. There’s just the raw display of humanity in all its glory and shame, its passions and poisons. A sigh escapes you when you put the book down, one of both relief and the privilege of having read a moving piece of literature. I am not sure I look forward to Kumar’s next piece – and I mean that as a compliment. He disturbs you in all the wrong places.

• Indian Express
  http://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/books/paper-backers-when-you-have-to-shoot-4686698/
  Word count: 340

  Paper Backers: When You Have to Shoot
  The novel follows one among them, Karan, through his execution of 35 “encounters”, till the system flips a switch and turns on him.
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  Written by Amrita Dutta , Asad Ali | Published:June 3, 2017 6:36 am
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  Book: The Third Squad
  Author: V Sanjay Kumar
  Publish: Juggernaut
  Page: 268
  Price: 499
  A Mumbai cop forms a special squad of encounter specialists — that euphemism for officers who specialise in cold-blooded murder and get away with it. But Ranvir Pratap, IPS, does not want his sharpshooters to go rogue. He wants a team “who spoke less, operated alone, [were] less social, did not feel for the targets .” So, a psychologist who runs a home for autistic children comes to his aid. Four young men on the Asperger’s spectrum, who have grown up in the home and have special gifts, are recruited in this Ranvir Sena.
  The novel follows one among them, Karan, through his execution of 35 “encounters”, till the system flips a switch and turns on him. The novel eases us into suspending moral judgement, as we watch him change from an efficient killer to a man who makes a moral choice. V Sanjay Kumar’s novel has a fascinating premise and is remarkable for its ambition. It falters because of too many distractions, but as a sharp portrait of a police force that has dispensed with all morals, and a city entwined with violence, it is classic Mumbai noir.

Word Count