A pacy corporate thriller with all the right ingredients. What
happens when individuals rise above the name of their companies? What happens
when corporate rivalry becomes personal, very very personal? Egos take over and
the big corporate, which make less sense anyway, start making even less of a
sense.
60 minutes is a story of sixty minutes of life of Agastya
and Sailesh, two people on the opposing sides of a battlefield. The battlefield
here is of detergents. Who will win and who will lose is and what would be the
cost of the victory is what this book is all about. It reminds you of the
famous detergent rivalries between P&G (Tide) and Hindustan Unilever (Rin,
Surf etc.) which are being battled about for years now. So the story begins
with this new detergent that Agastya plans to launch. He has worked hard for
past some time to get it going. This is going to be one of the biggest brand
launches by his company in recent times. But his rival Sailesh plays spoilsport
and tries his best to scuttle the launch by throwing spanners in his work. Now
Agastya has to respond but he has been taken by surprise and has just sixty
minutes to right everything, make Sailesh retreat and get a successful product
launch. Breathing down his neck at the same time is his mistress who wants a
lot of his money, attention and time. Something which he can’t give at the moment.
But she won’t have any of it. So on top of his career, now his personal life is
under threat as well.
Add to it the compulsive addictions, for Agastya which is
stock speculations. Like a gambler he plays the high stake games of equity
markets. Then there are the women with whom he sleeps around. The character of
Agastya is very well written by the author. I hated that woman, Maithili
totally.
But when two people slug it out in the open, the opportunists
are the ones who extract the maximum blood. In this case as well, as Sailesh
and Agastya fight it out, others are trying to make the best out of it, by
using this battle as a means to advance their own careers. After all they both
hold very high positions in their respective companies. Personal ambitions can
be easily fulfilled by manipulating their fight.
Sailesh is also a well sketched out character but the author
seems to have dwelled less time on him. He is this academic chap who has
stumbled into the corporate world and is sucked into the myriad of opportunities
and options given to him. He has determined Agastya as his foe and will stop at
absolutely nothing to destroy him. His astute and sharp brain churns out a
master plan too. But will this hatred be his undoing? Read the book to know
more.
Then there is this vamp kinda character Maithili. I hated
her all through the book. Do we even need an excuse for actions of such people?
These are the kind of people who disturb the society most.
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