THE INDIAN COMMENTATOR

In a major newspaper, I read an article about the new Hrithik Roshan movie Super 30. The article celebrated the fact that the film had reached one hundred crore club in just ten days. However, the article slammed Hrithik Roshan's presence in the film and blamed him as a misfit for the role of Anand Kumar, the protagonist of the real-life story of Super 30. At first, I was engrossed by the title of the article that openly states the inadequacy of the actor playing the role of the protagonist. After reading the article, the conclusion that I derived was that perhaps, the article was influenced by some PR agency that works to tarnish the image of Hrithik Roshan. The main argument of the article was that Super 30 should be seen as a comeback movie for Hrithik Roshan, in which he fails to make a comeback. Does that make sense? A comeback movie in which he fails to make an effective comeback! This hypothesis has a charm of its own, by the way. The article consciously underm...

The art of the novel, in its serious and most fruitful form, deals with the questions of existence. This is one of the features of a good novel, I think. A novel should discuss in its unique way something about our life and the environment, the background of life. I think I am in Love is a novel by Devanshi Sharma. This is her third novel. The simple and captivating title of the book reflects the spirit of the novel. It is written in simple English. The author's voice breaks into the narration of the novel on several occasions to exchange warm humour with the reader. When I say simple English, I mean the English that we use to communicate with each other daily in the streets, or market places or among our friends in college. Meera and Ishaan met as colleagues. Meera is a rookie in the office. She is also an aspiring blogger whose fashion blog has already found its audience even before she landed on her new job after graduation. Ishaan is drawn to her. But he only wants ...

Consider this not a book review but a suggestion or an advice article. Read The Mind Game by Devika Das, a passionate writer, theatre artist, and poet. and learn the strategies to master the emotions of the human psyche. It is of urgent concern for us all to take hold of our lives and succeed in our endeavours.      The Mind Game brings to us a revolutionary idea. The idea that survival of the fittest should be rewritten as the survival of the one with the strongest mind. Devika Das, with her lucid language, uses her storytelling skills to place before us a set of scientific and innovative ideas to adopt.     Adopting the strategies described in The Mind Game , one transcends oneself into the realm of the strong-minded. We are bound by the belief that our mind is something that exists within the body. Like this belief itself, we expect our mind to be limited and invisible. Therefore, we tend to overlook our emotional responses when faced ...

We say several years when it comes to testing our ability to remember accurately when a particular event had transpired. I too have to submit to the urge to say sweeping several years. Nothing can match my excitement when I held the copy of Ashok and the Nine Unknown in my hands. The book was a gift from the publisher Rupa Books and author Anshul Dupare. I do not mean they presented the book to me. I mean they have gifted the Indian literatures in English something new to cherish, a shining, sweet thing that pulsates with emotions and moves with time. My memory took me back to a time travel journey. It was several years ago that I first heard and read about emperor Ashok.   The word emperor was new to me. The story of this emperor who had conquered most of India and had the power to transform kingdoms into dust taught me that power and victory could behave at a great price. Anshul Dupare's book opens with Ashok's response to the slaughter at Kalinga, after th...

          Narasimha is the first book in The Mahaavatar Trilogy by Kevin Missal, soon to be released by Harper Collins Publishers. He surprised the Indian readers with his thrilling mythological fantasies such as the Kalki books. His approach towards the presentation of books including the publishing and marketing is unique in its merit. He is not just an exaggerated market phenomenon. He writes well. He is good at crafting stories.             So I decided to ask him my trademark six questions. 1. Narasimha' s story is known to me as a ferocious Avatar coming out of a pillar at the request of Prahlada. I have always wondered what happened to the Avatar after that and before that moment also. Is everything your story tells us fantasy like your version of Kalki? Or have you unearthed mythological subtexts for your book?             They ar...

The biggest question any student of Indian writing in English might want to avoid is Kashmiri literature. There is a vast collection of folk tales and oral literature in Kashmir. There is poetry, songs, and novels too. However, A thoughtfully crafted serious fiction on Kashmir is rare. Snakes in the Meadows by Ayaz Kohli is a serious novel about the life in Kashmir valley. The story is settled in the background of the Pir Panjal region. A small village in the region named Pathri Aali is one of the characters of the story.  The novel opens with the life of Haji Mir, the patriarch in the village. Through Haji Mir we meet a world of characters with their own individual voices, ambitions, life, and preferences. It is a wonderful feat to assemble all these characters within the purview of a single novel. The story moves and turns like a river through the lives of these characters. One of the characters that impressed me was Aslam who ran away just before his marriage....

Rewind And Play does feel like it's inspired by real events although the author does not claim any such thing. It's a story about survival, homecoming, and the importance of friendship. The novel is written in a humorous and lucid language. A reverberating college story is at its centre. However, in its nature, it far exceeds the limitations and clichéss of all other college stories available in India. Tarun Gautam sketches the life of Raghav who lives with his wife and two children in the US. His only focus is to expand his career. Raghav is at the pinnacle of growth in his career when we meet him for the first time. Gradually, we see how a turn of fate turns his life upside down. His family had to be flown back to India. He had to embrace the hard realities of living a life in another country. However, an invitation for a get-together from his old college mates finds him disinterested in any such activity. Due to his recent tragedy, Raghav is not in a mood to...

"You need to understand the two types of weapons our ancient warriors used, astra and shastra. Shastra is defined as any physical weapon such as the likes of an arrow or a spear. An astra, on the other hand, is not a physical weapon but, if put simply, a bundle of frequencies."- (99) Recipe fiction's most enticing resource these days in India is mythology. By recipe fiction, I mean that kind of novel that pulsates with the help of the plot. It does not give a lot of concern about establishing the mood. It cannot risk the loss of attention of the reader. This doesn't mean this type of formulaic writing serves to endanger the dignity of the writer in any way. Quite the contrary, the writer of the recipe fiction should be given more respect as he or she is constantly battling the urge to plunge into the most beautiful sentence construction and scene description either to create a mood or the extra satisfaction one deserves after long hours of battling with i...

Deadline extended to 15 June 2019 Themes: Eclectic (Any theme) Criteria: One can submit any number of stories. If all your submissions qualified the criteria, we will publish them all. All submissions should be previously unpublished . You must also state the same on the submission email. The works should be in the English language. Word length Short story: 500-2000 Submission guidelines: But most of all, selection depends on the quality of your writing. Once we accept your work for publication, it will undergo editing. We will let you know of the changes made if any. Copyright of the work shall remain with the author. He or she can submit the same work(s) for any other publication. Email for submission :  kdhyan33@gmail.com Subject line: submission short story Submission should be attached with this mail in .doc format. A Second person bio of the author should be included on the body of the email. Also, attach a photo of the author with...

Sassi is a Hindi translation of the novel written by Rajveer Singh Prajapati titled Destined Lives - Journey till the Start published by Leadstart Publishing Private Ltd. in the year 2013. The Hindi translation titled Sassi published in the year 2016 by Redgrab Books followed the success of the English title. After reading Sassi , the Hindi translation, it is difficult to say if it's a translation at all. One may wonder if Sassi , the Hindi novel is the source that was translated to English under the title Destined Lives - Journey till the start . The only criteria I adopt here to differentiate the source text and the target text or translated text is the chronology. Only after the publication of Destined Lives did they release Sassi . So if you find me addressing the Hindi title as a translation, the publication date is only to blame.     In Sassi , the author uses nostalgia with skill. From the cover, which looks classy to the yellow cream-coloured pag...

Anuradha Prasad's collection of six short stories under the title Rain Drops and Caterpillars evokes some first-time moments and their significances. Her characters hail from different backgrounds. Consequently, these stories have unique perspectives to share. Each of them is different from one another. If you go by the urge to locate rarity, a short story collection would certainly match the intention in the Indian literary scene. Short story collections are rare in a world ruled by novels. Rain Drops and Caterpillars inspires one to think of the weight of a short story in comparison to a novel. It feels like looking at the legendary scene of David and Goliath. The dwarf had a final victory over the giant. Rain Drops and Caterpillars includes stories about first love, love breaks, heartaches, dedication, and commitment to one's country, an inspiring story on parenting, moving on from an abusive relationship, and homosexuality. The stories are told in a languag...

Author Shilpi Moda Signodia is a trained management professional who took up writing and parenting as her vocations. Her new book Innocent Wings is a tour de force uproots some aged redundancies regarding parenting in the Indian context. The unique contextual sensibility renders the book with phenomenal relevance. In the light of the recent child-abuse cases registered in Kerala, my home state, I'd say, every parent and individual with a family must read Innocent Wings and rethink the ways in which they treat their children.              Now, friends, I get a bit greedy when it comes to books and related materials. So after perusing Innocent Wings and opening my eyes to these new possibilities in parenting and child-caring, I felt the urge to talk to the author to get some answers to questions that were welling up inside me.   The result is this short interview with the author Shilpi.        ...