BOOK REVIEW:STAR-CROSSED
Star-crossed,
a novel originally named as KARIANDA NAZHALGAL ,written by Ashokamitran
in Tamil,further translated by V.Ramnarayana is one of the most famous novel that
depicts Tamil cinema.Rather than focussing on glamour and celebrities it
emphasizes on the dark and poor side of Tamil cinema popularly known as Kollywood.Unlike
other novels which revolve around a particular story and theme,this one on the
contrary have individual instances stacked together.
One of
the most interesting feature of this novel is that story revolves around the
characters instead of characters revolving around story.Basically,the story is
not attached to a particular person.It also shows various type of discriminations of post
colonial-era like regionalism by Shiv-Sena
in Bombay.The novel starts with a poor film manager who looses his job the
producer of the film shut down the production due to economic problems,making other crewmen
jobless.Sampat was the only crewmen who
made his fortune at the end.The novel also shows the life full of controversies
and disputes of producers and main investors of cinema. Ashokamitran has beautifully
described the pitiful and misery conditions of characters i.e size of their
houses,their family background etc..It gives a taste of their daily life and
their typical office or studio life.The
novel also describes the cinema as a game of gamble. Every tiny aspect of real life has been unleashed in this novel.
Most of
the part of the novel does not contain
any humour,it just shows the situations but tinge of sarcasm has been expressed when Czech delegations
make a funny comment on Indian cinema.
The
translation is quite simple and easy to to understand.Third person narration
has been used in the whole plot except in the last chapter.Ramnarayan has used
few tamil words in the translation which he has not translated but a reference
has been provided at the end.I liked the
simplicity and originality of the novel.
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