Coronation Talkies

by Susan Kurosawa

In Chalaili, an Indian hill station stranded above the clouds, where the trees and flowers are of ravishing hues and the annual monsoon hits with monumental force, a small enclave of British expatriates cling to the glory of a fast-fading empire.Into this faltering world come two starkly different but memorable the larger-than-life Mrs Banerjee, with her armoury of gold bangles and saris in thrilling colours, and Lydia Rushmore, a timid Surrey school teacher hurriedly married off to he town's disgraced meteorologist. Mrs Banerjee sets out to transfer the run-down theatre into Coronation Talkies, a thoroughly modern cinema showing Hollywood's latest love stories. Lydia Rushmore discovers the soothing effects of gin as she tries to fit into hill station society and please her complicated new husband.As World War II looms in Europe and British colonial power recedes, Chalaili becomes the setting for trickery, seduction and the unveiling of shocking secrets.

Genres: India, Fiction, Asia, Australia

300 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Bachyboy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in Chalaili, an Indian hill station, this story is about the meeting of two cultures; Indian and the British. It has a glorious range of characters from the larger that life Mrs Banerjee who opens a movie theatre to Lydia Rushmore, a timid Surrey school teacher who marries in haste. All the characters have their own secrets and I couldn't help feeling it would make a great film.

[Anna [Floanne] · Rating 4 out of 5]

The larger-than-life and resourceful Mrs Banerjee has left behind a difficult past in Bombay to set up a cinema featuring her Hollywood heroes. Lydia, the very English wife of the meteorological officer William Rushmore, has just arrived in India and now faces the fragile narrow-minded British community of Chalahili, a remote colonial outpost, famous for being the wettest and steepest place in India. I loved this book, it was very well written, full of interesting female characters (Mrs Banerjee above all) , lots of surprises and hilarious moments too. But that unnatural ending left me a bit disappointed: if it weren’t for the last pages I'd have given it 5 stars.

[Jeremy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Silly and overly long.

[Erica Mukherjee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found Coronation Talkies to be a very familiar book. There is a small, insular community with its own trivial gossip and into it is thrown an outsider, a young woman who must learn to subsist on a diet of loneliness. Most of the details differ, but there was nothing epic about this tale, no earth-shattering revelations. It was simply a book filled with homely scenarios that proved to pass the time in a pleasant fashion.
I very much enjoyed the character of Mrs. Banerjee for I know that woman. I have seen her waddle through Paltan Bazaar as if the crowds should part for her impending bulk. She also does not notice or care about the enormous fashion faux pas she is creating when she ties her sari low so that her entire gelatinous midriff pours over the top of her waistband. Her clothing’s bright colors hurt the eye and the amount of gold jewelry and bangles she is wearing could finance the first year of college. When Mr. Rushmore said in that book that he has a dream of Mrs. Banerjee as the symbol of Mother India, he could not have been more right. She is the start of the modern Indian middle-class woman and represents the new India in its continual struggle to synthesize east and west. She goes to pooja but carries her pashad in a Fab India bag so everyone knows she is able to afford to shop at the best stores.
I also was able to sympathize with Lydia Rushmore until she drowned herself in gin. I too am a transplant to the colorful land, though Lydia is a far more pale character than I am. She is homesick and overwhelmed by the Indianess of India. Even when not surrounded by the teeming poverty-stricken masses of Bombay, India can still knock one over. The smells are richer here, the food spicier, the sun brighter and hotter, the contrasts between beauty and ugliness, riches and poverty stronger. Even in the most remote of British hill stations India is still able to reach up and slap the unsuspecting feranghi in the face. Coronation Talkies showed Lydia being pulled down beneath the Indian cultural tsunami. This is modern India, not willing to give up its identity to the conquerors any longer.
This novel of the tail end of the Raj gave a key to its downfall. The instant one admits that there are many merits to Indian culture or the Hindu religion one can no longer conquer and rule India. The power of the Raj was an overbearing confidence in the superiority of all things European. Only an impregnable wall of intolerance for all things native kept the Britishers in power. However, as soon as there was one break in the dam, the floodgates opened and the Indians overwhelmed their rulers. The Raj started out strong, but as soon as Indians were found to be competent and Indian culture to have merit they relaxed their guard and the hypnotic pull of India took over. Because India is so unpredictable and colorful she had to win out in the end over the pale nation of shopkeepers.

[Annalise · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up this book on a whim; it was left at my work. What a strange and wonderful cast of characters. Mrs. Banjaree is crazy! So bubbly, so full of life. Her obsession with a particular American actor was strange and amusing.

The tea ladies who own the shop that's just a front for their political rebellion are fascinatingly strange.

There is scandal, there are lies, there is gossip, there are scenes of India, and then there is the neglect the main character feels, and her turn to gin. I found myself watching Lydia, the main character, unravel, an experience which ends up being all the best for her to put her life back together again at the end. I loved her character development; I found myself, through the narrative, understanding how she felt.

I loved this book, and yet it was frustrating at the same time. Some of the turns of the plot seemed very forced; they didn't feel like the natural progression of the story. The ending for Lydia seemed very natural, but the ending for Mrs. Banjaree seemed quite... fake, or forced, for lack of a better word.

Anyway, it was quite an enjoyable read.

[Pip Jennings · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my second reading after quite a few years. I remembered loving it the first time and I wasn’t disappointed this time. A light, irreverent and very funny novel about the last days of the Raj.

[Olivia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story to have you smiling.If you like the genre. Intrinsically gentle Indian 'memsahib'style tongue-in cheek ardour for a passion. This time with movies. Set in Chelaili Hill Station district at a time when the future of Anglo- India was once more under firm scrutiny. The sense of unrest amongst both the colonial British, the new 'Indians' and the Indians of the Raj service begins to divide any sense of common interest. Which of course had hardly been the case. The self-absorption of the central character is coupled with sardonic self-appraisal. There is, yet, an underlying combination of fervour with the movies and an unlikely friendship with an unsuccessful 'British wife and her disgraced' husband. The Movies, their venue and the intrigues provide an outlet for the uncertainty, which becomes moulded into friendship and a project.
Enjoyable and so funny. Somewhat in the style of McCall's African series No. 1 Ladies Detective.
I would read more of her work if our rural, regional library could source it. I've no idea how this one got through!

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Chalaili, an Indian hill station stranded above the clouds, where the trees and flowers are of ravishing hues and the annual monsoon hits with monumental force, a small enclave of British expatriates cling to the glory of a fast-fading empire.

Into this faltering world comes two starkly different but memorable women: the larger than-life Mrs Banerjee, with her armoury of gold bangles and saris in thrilling colours, and Lydia Rushmore, a timid Surrey school teacher hurriedly married off to the town's disgraced meteorologist.Mrs Banerjee sets out to transform the run-down Chalaili theatre into Coronation Talkies, a thoroughly modern cinema showing Hollywood's latest love stories> Lydia Rushmore discovers the soothing effects of gin as she tries to fit into hill station society and please her complicated new husband.

As World War II looms in Europe and British colonial power recedes, Chalaili becomes the setting for trickery,seduction and the unveiling of shocking secrets.

A charming debut novel of love, lust and lies.......

[Cath Cole · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little predictive with a few unexpected twists and turns. Lots of interesting and colourful characters, however, Mrs Banajee is clearly the star of this cute and fun novel. Going deeper tho this cute novel provides insight into the issues for Indian women living in an Indian caste society and the importance of stature, marriage and money. Similarly the issues for half cast children, particularly women, also abuse of power of the idle English aristocracy over Indian servants. Politically, the oppression of the Indian people by the English under their rule and the drive to reclaim their country. It did a great job in drawing out the differences in culture between the lively and colourful Indian culture and the staid and proper English. All said, tho, it was a fun read.

[Kimberley Hanson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I struggled with this because I didn’t feel that there was a clear plot for me to follow. Normally a trader knows roughly what will happen - a murder will happen and be solved or a person will grow and solve their personal problems. In this it seemed to be a collection of little stories that leads to the ‘main character’ (who we don’t see for half the book) having a shocking secret revealed to her at the very end. This doesn’t resolve anything just opens a whole lot of questions.

But, I did like the authors motifs of clouds and her descriptions of words becoming ‘real’ in the world.

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice easy read. A realistic story about life in India at that time, it is supported by an interesting group of characters, who each bring a different perspective to daily lives and goings on in this remote Hill Station.

[Aneesha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite lovely if you have a lot of time as it’s a long long book. Full of interesting insights about the social interaction between the Brits in hill stations and Affluent and poor Indians back in the 1930’s when it was inevitable that the British Raj was nearing its end.

[Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

not the greatest read ever!

[SIMIN · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a hilarious look at the British Raj. Fantastic characterisation.

[Madge · Rating 1 out of 5]

Senseless book.

[Louise Aakjaer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A scandalous, rollicking, funny easy read.

[Janet Meade · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book from a second-hand table at St Andrews market, between the organic veggies and the soap lady. The story began slowly and I thought I was not going to like it, but by the end I was caught up in the romance and intrigue of Chalaili. Although some of the plot twists upset me (Why was there no happy ending for Devi?)the novel gave me a peek into life in India in the final years before England left the country to its independence. Mrs Banerjee was an inspiring character, from her refusal to doubt herself to her determination to live the life she chose, despite the restrictions placed on women by the prevailing culture.

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is terrifically funny in its observations of the type of people who lived in Indian hill stations in the 1930s. Enlivened by the character of Mrs Premila Banerjee who moves to the town to open a sight unseen cinema. Mostly strong female characters with a few men. Every character has a quirk of some sort, the obsessional wally of a weatherman, the women who consider themselves top of the pile and the more down to earth ones. Scandal, snobbery, striving, successful , sad people but mostly an optimistic take on life and relationships.
This is the author's first book I believe so I hope she keeps it up.
Not her only book I have since discovered - which is good.

[Kai · Rating 3 out of 5]

An easy read book set in a hill town near Bombay in the 1930's in the dying days of British colonialism. It contrasts the British characters with the local Indian identities, together with their servants and the general style of life at that time. The story is somewhat twee and never very deep, but has its moments with the ill-fitting marriage of convenience for the British main characters and the hidden disaster of a non-marriage for the Indian proprietor of the local picture theatre. Various other idiosyncratic characters add to the silliness of this story. It is quite humorous in parts, so perhaps if just taken as a comedy this book does not fail.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is 1937, the end of the British Raj in India. Two women settle in a small hill station. One is the large-as-life Mrs Banerjee, who opens a cinema in the old theatre - but where is Mr Banerjee? The other is Lydia Rushmore, a quiet English school teacher saved from spinsterhood by the local meteorologist, ordered to find a wife after a small scandal involving someone else's wife.

The book is an amusing, and sometimes tragic, look at a small insular community where everyone has a secret.

[Annette McIntyre · Rating 2 out of 5]

An English civil servant must find himself a wife after an incident with another man's wife. This book is about her adjustment (or not) to her new life in India. This is also the story of an Indian woman and her buisness of running a talking moving picture house in the village of Chailali.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a random read for me too. An insightful and ironically postcolonial comment on India. Larger than life characters that had redeeming characteristics. Nearly bought it again although I have already read it. A memorable read.0

[Helly Dugdale · Rating 5 out of 5]

I grabbed this from the library, at first I did not like the beginning, but in the end I could not put it down. What a list of bright, funny, laughable characters, all living with secrets, pasts, and futures in this little village in the mountains of India.

[Teena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful book. I loved it and I even think Jo would like it!

[Minakshi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Similar to the humour found in the Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency series.

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this story - easy to relate to and loved the writing style.

[Fee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cleverly funny prose let down by unnecessary length. The ending was too contrived for my liking. If the book was shorter it would have been sweeter.

[Carmie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hilarious read. Laughed out loud in parts.

[Sara Foley · Rating 3 out of 5]

It had some good moments, but was a little bit disappointing I thought. Some bits just didn't make sense, or weren't thought through properly. I'm such a sucker for books about India though :)

[Lindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite good. Fun