Candidate, The

‘I can’t picture you surviving in Indian politics. Let me tell you the reasons: you have morals, too much integrity, and you lack an ego.’ Without a job, and a marriage on the rocks, the mild-mannered Jay Banerjee has no choice but to come back from the US to Delhi. A chance meeting with a childhood friend, Govardhan Ray, aka Raja―a neta with a scandal too many―plunges him into the seamy, madcap world of Indian politics. The fight for the Narayanpore seat―a nondescript district in West Bengal―begins, and along with it, the process of discovering ‘the real India’. Jay’s challenge: to provide a ‘clean campaign with integrity’. Replete with colourful campaigns, media hullabaloo, cynical voters, goondas, chamchas and all the usual suspects, The Candidate is a breezy and humorous story of the great Indian election tamasha. Read more