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Review: Red Card by Kautuk Srivastava
A coming-of-age sports novel that will remind you of matches played, and of school romances
Football buffs would remember the infamous headbutt episode in the finals of the 2006 World Cup. The legendary French playmaker Zinedine Zidane was red-carded after he headbutted Italian central defender Marco Materazzi in the chest. Italy would win the match, but the news that made bigger headlines the next day was what happened between Zidane and Materazzi. It was unexpected - and shocking.
Kautuk Srivastava’s coming-of-age sports novel, Red Card, begins with a vivid narration of the episode. That’s not surprising since the story has football at the centre of the plotting field. The author’s basic minimum expectation is that his reader must enjoy football. Adult characters don’t play the game in the novel. School-going teenagers, who must strike a balance between studies and sports, do.
The protagonist is Rishabh Bala, a tenth standard student of Shri Sunderlal Sanghvi School in Thane. He represents his school in football tournaments and disappoints his parents with his poor grades. Rishabh has had a huge crush on Tamanna, his classmate, since the seventh standard. She does not reciprocate his interest since she is dating another football player – a nasty fellow - from a rival school.
Not much later, Rishabh realises he is attracted to Barkha, who is almost as impossibly bright as the young Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter novels. Barkha admits she likes him too and Rishabh isn’t single any longer. Of course, that is not the climax of the Rishabh-Barkha love story.
Srivastava is gifted with a great sense of humour. That quality comes to the fore when he describes Rishabh’s unease while walking up to Tamanna to express his feelings for her. “Though in reality Rishabh walked a total distance of ten feet, it felt like he had completed the Dandi march twice over.” Red Card has many such moments, most of them revolving around a bunch of football-playing youngsters and their interactions with their teachers, football coach, and parents.
In this novel about football, the school team takes centre stage. So does Mehfouz Noorani, the tough coach, who played at the national level in his youth. What kind of a person is he? “Like all good dictators, the coach had the rare ability to inspire confidence even after threatening genocide.” That’s funny.
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The team has some interesting characters – Puro, Floyd, Rahul and others – who make the atmosphere of the school come alive. It is like the Lagaan team of school-level football, minus poverty and taxation issues with cruel British colonisers. Some of the teachers are relatable individuals found in schools everywhere.
The novel features a few school-level tournaments, which Srivastava describes rather well. But those portions will only appeal to those passionate about the game. Others will find them tiring and repetitive, and are likely to skip those pages. Red Card would have been more absorbing if it were 50 pages shorter and had fewer descriptions of games. Though it is more than 300 pages long, it is meant to be finished in one sitting. However, it will entertain those who love football. It will also make the reader nostalgic about school.
It will remind you of matches played, and of offering biscuits or some other silly snack to the beloved inside a movie theatre. Red Card, in short, will make you smile from time to time.
Biswadeep Ghosh is an independent journalist. He lives in Patna.
