This novel is a blend of historical fact and fiction based on the tragic life of Duleep Singh. When Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Punjab died in 1839, turmoil rocked the empire. “The khudgarzi that destroys empires and has soaked our history in blood is not the disease only of kings and princes and ambitious ranis.” Punjab fell to the British within a decade. Duleep Singh, the youngest of Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s recognised sons at 11, signed away his kingdom and its riches, including the Kohinoor diamond. Soon after the British took over the kingdom, the British separated Duleep from his people, and converted him to Christianity. Exiled to England at 16, Duleep felt disillusioned. “Lord Rama too went into exile, but a stepmother had cursed him. What was the curse that I was under?” Returning to the Sikh faith, he tried to get home to lead his people. Drawn into the dark depths of nineteenth century European politics, betrayed and denigrated, the last maharaja of Punjab drew his last breath in a cheap Paris hotel room. This is a moving story well told in the voices of Duleep Singh and fictional characters from his times.

This set of ten compact books highlight the works of ten women, who have infused new life and energy into Indian films. The writers, Kaveree Bamzai, Rajashri Dasgupta, Charu Gargi, Udita
Jhunjhunwala, Namrata Joshi and Nandini Ramnath, have a long-term, passionate interest in films. They have presented their personal choices of women whose work has set them in a class apart in the world of the silver screen. The monographs entice the reader with their anecdotal style. They study how the personal
lives have influenced the professional lives of Aparna Sen, Jaya Bachchan, Smita Patil, Zeenat Amman, Aarti Bajaj, Saira Banu, Madhuri Dixit, Farah Khan, Mumtaz and Nutan. These profiles bring out the human sides of memorable film divas in an engrossing way. Share Nutan’s shyness when her idol Nargis visited her home. Empathise with Smita Patil, “the sexually frank actor, who shunned playing unreal coy heroines,” as she suddenly became reticent when faced with the demands of mainstream cinema. While the slim monographs in a box are attractive and handy, they may not do complete justice to the depth and enduring interest of their contents.