Sourabh Mukherjee's Blog, page 3
October 29, 2017
Book Review - One Indian Girl by Chetan Bhagat
With 'One Indian Girl', CB breaks new ground. He writes in the voice of a woman, he talks about the challenges the Indian society, the Great Indian Family, the workplace keep throwing at modern urban Indian women, and how the protagonist battles against all of this and also, "her own inner voice at times". The last is a very clever and in this context, very successful writing ploy. CB maintains an almost parallel thread where the inner voice of the girl, brought up in a conservative, archaic env...
Book Review - One Indian Girl
With 'One Indian Girl', CB breaks new ground. He writes in the voice of a woman, he talks about the challenges the Indian society, the Great Indian Family, the workplace keep throwing at modern urban Indian women, and how the protagonist battles against all of this and also, "her own inner voice at times". The last is a very clever and in this context, very successful writing ploy. CB maintains an almost parallel thread where the inner voice of the girl, brought up in a conservative, archaic...
Book Review - The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
'The Fault in Our Stars' is the first John Green book I read. And I am now going to read ALL his books. This book was a revelation. Because, when I picked up the book, I had braced myself for yet another global phenomenon, immensely popular romance now-made-into-a-Hollywood-blockbuster (soon to be re-made in India, I hear), but essentially 'Sympathy Lit' (which I am told is now almost a guaranteed recipe for success in that genre).And I was SO WRONG! Yes, there are diseases, there is misery, the...
Book Review - The Fault in Our Stars
'The Fault in Our Stars' is the first John Green book I read. And I am now going to read ALL his books. This book was a revelation. Because, when I picked up the book, I had braced myself for yet another global phenomenon, immensely popular romance now-made-into-a-Hollywood-blockbuster (soon to be re-made in India, I hear), but essentially 'Sympathy Lit' (which I am told is now almost a guaranteed recipe for success in that genre).And I was SO WRONG! Yes, there are diseases, there is misery,...
October 16, 2017
Kolkata: The anatomy of a city in Agni Mitra thrillers
The first Agni Mitra thriller ‘In the Shadows of Death’ (https://goo.gl/ajgKLn) starts with a portrayal of Park Street on a rainy evening, which goes as below:
“Those who had run for cover under the shades included men and women who had been working late in the many offices in the neighbourhood, street children who would otherwise flock around foreigners staying in one of the plush hotels in the area, pimps who carried albums loaded with pictures of call-girls and would get in the w...
October 12, 2017
Chinese food, Romance and a Murder: What’s cooking?
‘The Colours of Passion’ brings to light the fate of a number of our favourite stand-alone restaurants in the face of competition from global restaurant chains.
China Valley, one of the oldest restaurants in South Kolkata, started off back in the seventies and soon became one of the most popular eateries in town. Taking a girl to China Valley for dinner could win her suitor brownie points and give him a head start in the field!
China Valley kept growing through the eighties and nineties, launc...
October 10, 2017
Decoding Cat-fights!
‘The Colours of Passion’ (Amazon link: https://goo.gl/cnY38Z) puts the spotlight on two leading ladies of Tollywood, their careers presently at the opposite ends of the spectrum.
Hiya Sen lost her parents in a train accident when she was seven and was brought up by an uncle who worked in the local post office in a small town in Burdwan. When she was in the third year of her Arts course in college, she filled out the application form for a beauty pageant in Kolkata, much against the w...
August 29, 2017
'The Colours of Passion' - The motivation behind my second novel
I have often asked myself this question.
Was it a desire to step out of the ‘shadows’ into a vibrant, ‘colourful’ milieu? To break free from the despondency of ‘death’ and savour the frenzy of ‘passion’? Maybe. Or, maybe not.
Because, when you are hurtling down the murky path of crime, it probably does not matter whether it is broad daylight or there are shadows looming large. It is the greed, the insecurity, and the hurt of a tormented soul that is at the root of all evils since time immemori...
May 7, 2017
Book Review - Museum of Memories: A soulful journey of many lives, through many eras and across many worlds
Amrita Mukherjee’s book ‘Museum of Memories’ (http://www.amazon.in/dp/9385854194/) is a collection of 13 short stories which, as the blurb suggests, are tales inspired by reality.
Reading through the stories, you find yourself looking into a kaleidoscope of emotions and Amrita, with her lucid language and superior storytelling skills, draws you into a world inhabited by characters you have grown up with, characters you run into everyday, and the person you look at every time you stand in fron...
Reading through the stories, you find yourself looking into a kaleidoscope of emotions and Amrita, with her lucid language and superior storytelling skills, draws you into a world inhabited by characters you have grown up with, characters you run into everyday, and the person you look at every time you stand in fron...
April 10, 2017
Book Review - Onaatah of the earth by Paulami Duttagupta
Early on in the narrative, Paulami Duttagupta has to say this about Onaatah, the feisty protagonist of her novel ‘Onaatah of the earth’ (http://www.amazon.in/Onaatah-Earth-Ad...
‘ She looked rotten. Her face looked battered. But she didn’t want anybody to see her tears.’
This line pretty much sums up the courage and the grit of the (s)hero of Paulami’s story.
Based on the eponymous Khasi language film that won a National Award in 2016, Paulami’s novel is about...
‘ She looked rotten. Her face looked battered. But she didn’t want anybody to see her tears.’
This line pretty much sums up the courage and the grit of the (s)hero of Paulami’s story.
Based on the eponymous Khasi language film that won a National Award in 2016, Paulami’s novel is about...
