Janaki Asgar, the name says it all. This story of an orthodox Tamil Brahmin, agraharam girl from Sripuram, marrying a Muslim Bollywood hero (yes, you read it right!) reads like the name of the book. A slow drawn tune carried through one of my favourite cities (chennai, in case your wondering). The novel follows a non linear narrative, going back and forth between the early life and the current one of our heroine.
Explanations are few and far between, the journey from Janaki - the housebound brahmin girl to Janaki Asgar, wife of bollywood actor and Veena exponent is drawn out, played with, tuned carefully and often left to the imagination. Each character is so well thought out, their lives so well plotted and revealed in tiny nuggets at a time, that you empathise even with the lowliest of them. From the lascivious Gayathri Chitti as the stepmotherly aunt to the grudge holding sister Mallika and even the gossip mongering neighbour, everyone is painted in tiny revealing strokes that ultimately leave you with a believable, whole and very human picture. And to make a very sexist comment, I had a hard time believing that a man had written this, and a non brahmin to boot. The smell, taste and atmosphere of an agraharam are so beautifully brought out, that at times I could catch a whiff of the fried potatoes and the crunch of dried vathals. For that itself, Ameen Merchant has been placed on my list of beautiful writers. This apart from the fact that he describes Chennai in a manner I wish, I had - Not with too much emotion, but with a fond familiarity and a feeling of home.
Now for the little flies in the pure Brahmin ointment. The non linear style sometimes seemed to hiccup along. Most of the actions of the current Janaki Asgar seemed rushed, not like the slow but interesting untangling of the young one. The novel is on the longer side, but a bit more could have been done at the end. The reader is left a little breathless and flustered, like a slow melody suddenly ending in a clash of cymbals and then silence.
6/10
Explanations are few and far between, the journey from Janaki - the housebound brahmin girl to Janaki Asgar, wife of bollywood actor and Veena exponent is drawn out, played with, tuned carefully and often left to the imagination. Each character is so well thought out, their lives so well plotted and revealed in tiny nuggets at a time, that you empathise even with the lowliest of them. From the lascivious Gayathri Chitti as the stepmotherly aunt to the grudge holding sister Mallika and even the gossip mongering neighbour, everyone is painted in tiny revealing strokes that ultimately leave you with a believable, whole and very human picture. And to make a very sexist comment, I had a hard time believing that a man had written this, and a non brahmin to boot. The smell, taste and atmosphere of an agraharam are so beautifully brought out, that at times I could catch a whiff of the fried potatoes and the crunch of dried vathals. For that itself, Ameen Merchant has been placed on my list of beautiful writers. This apart from the fact that he describes Chennai in a manner I wish, I had - Not with too much emotion, but with a fond familiarity and a feeling of home.
Now for the little flies in the pure Brahmin ointment. The non linear style sometimes seemed to hiccup along. Most of the actions of the current Janaki Asgar seemed rushed, not like the slow but interesting untangling of the young one. The novel is on the longer side, but a bit more could have been done at the end. The reader is left a little breathless and flustered, like a slow melody suddenly ending in a clash of cymbals and then silence.
6/10
2 comments:
Good commentary, nicely expressed and I totally concur but goodness me! you got the name of the main character wrong. Yikes.
Geraldine Swayze
ooops! Thanks for the pointer!
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