Sidharth Singh is a writer, filmmaker and live sports producer based in Mumbai. He is also the author of the novel Fighter Cock. Sidharth Singh, author, says ‘Rebels and countercultures have always fascinated me along with the big questions about these worlds in India: how did these countercultures emerge here and what was it like being a rebel in the old days? That’s when the idea of writing a fictional biography (originally conceived as a mockumentary) about an obscure rock musician from the 1970s began to take root. But as the story evolved, the character of Max Bulandi grew into a larger-than-life persona who embodied the rebellious spirit of his generation, and I found myself pushing the boundaries of the story beyond rock-and-roll and into an exploration of the zeitgeist of the time. My late father, Mayur, was a student at St. Xavier’s College in Calcutta through the politically turbulent but musically fertile period between 1968 and 1971. His colourful exploits on Park Street became my primary source of research and provided an authentic springboard for the story, after which the writing turned into a blissful outpouring of my own adolescent influences: Beatniks, Hippies, rock and roll, psychedelia and Gonzo journalism, mashed up with the history of Indian rock music, and elevated to the realm of fiction. Beyond these countercultural themes, however, The Extraordinary Life of Max Bulandi, is a story about the misplaced passions of youth, the perils of addiction and eventually about healing and coming-of-age.
<p>'If you've been wondering whether India will ever produce a world-class rock band, think no further. The Flow is here.'</p><p>Nirvana’s life is a mess—he is a jilted lover, a bored addict and a disillusioned journalist. Nothing, it seems, can get him out of his funk.</p><p>Until one afternoon, when he discovers a pile of back issues of India’s premier youth magazine from the 1970s, Junior Standard. An article on a famed rock contest of the time catches his eye. It mentions a band called The Flow and their frontman, Max Bulandi, hailed as India’s answer to Jim Morrison. Nirvana is consumed by the article and when a chance meeting with an old Bombay rocker whets his appetite further, he embarks on a search for the mysterious Max Bulandi and the early pioneers of the Indian rock music scene. As he traces the lost history of The Flow across Bombay, Calcutta, Shillong and Benares, it opens up to him a world of riffs and beats that transforms his life quite completely.</p><p>Exhilarating and utterly original, The Extraordinary Life of Max Bulandi is at once a coming-of-age story with a twist and a much-awaited hat-tip to the legends of Indian rock music.</p>
