India is a fascinating place and I've heard this was a fascinating book, but the plotline doesn't ring true, the dialogue is pretentious, laughably so at times, and just drags this series out. Charlie Hunnam's sing song Australian accent is odd and his character even less believable. To begin with, armed robber Lin (Hunnam) cradles dying cop in his arms instead of fleeing, his lawyer can get him off so he pleads guilty, then avoids certain death in Australian prison by escaping to India, where he tries to change his life and lie low by getting into street fights and hanging out with gangsters. So to assuage his guilt he lives in the slums where queues line up every day outside his shanty for doctoring because he was a paramedic. Sure. This is clearly fantasy not a true story, as I initially thought, and Lin is not the only unbelievable character. Head gangster Khaderbai talks like an intellectual philosopher and the underworld intrigue also stretches plausibility. There is enough suspense to keep you along for the rather slow ride but many of the scenes look shot on the lot instead of in India and tighter dialogue and plot could have made this a lot better.
Review of Shantaram
