Mouki presents...
The Moukītāben series - Literary Chronicles
Series approved by Étoile
Let's discover desi literature together!
Hello everyone! Mouki here from Chandāga!
And welcome to the 7th episode of Moukītāben
Yes, we're still in my basement, but before you protest, I'm going to show you something
Okay, look...
Here, we have the cushions and the books - that I still have to sell or donate - where I'm usually filming.
And right here, it's my wall, actually. It's the outline for the book I'm currently writing...
So if my background had looked like this, it wouldn't have been pleasant for you
So, we're going to stick to my lovely basement for now.
Anyway, the background doesn't matter, because you'll only focus on this.
My So-Called Bollywood Life by Nisha Sharma
I don't know if you can see it properly... here you go.
The Summary
It's about Vaneeta "Winnie" Mehta, The One With The Perfect Bollywood Horoscope
She'll meet the love of her life before her 18th birthday, his name will start with an "R", and this man...
...will gift her a silvery bracelet.
At first glance, her childhood best friend Raj is the perfect candidate. Except that when Winnie comes back...
...from her cinema summer camp, she discovers that Raj is cheating on her!
Spiteful, she turns to Dev, whom she knew before going out with Raj.
Which doesn't please her family, because they listen to everything the pandit (astrologer) said to her.
Winnie will have to chose between her destiny, even though she doesn't love Raj anymore...
And her desires, which could attract all sorts of problems
Who will Winnie love: Raj or Dev? And will Winnie be able to go into NYU program of her dreams?
All the answers are in this book!
The Style
The book is not *bad*, but Sharma's writing-style makes it look like it's worse than it actually is.
It's the biggest flaw of the book, because the author didn't allow us to feel for her characters.
By that, I mean: in a novel, we can have access to the characters' feelings and thoughts
Which is not possible in films. In a movie, we can't get into a character's head.
If you watch more movies than you read books, and if someday you want to write a book...
Your writing style could be influenced by what you saw and not what you felt.
In fact, My So-Called Bollywood Life could be a better movie than it is a book.
Because the author based her writing on physical descriptions, sometimes useless, and on dialogues
I've never read a novel that had so many dialogues by the page.
Which unhooked me right away, which is a shame, since the first scene is really intriguing
The first pages are about Winnie who burries all the DVD's she bought for Raj!
It's intense, it teases you, but after, everything fell flat.
Because of the style.
And to prove you that I'm not of bad faith, I'll read you a few extracts - forgive my accent.
It's only a sentence. It's when Winnie is waiting for Dev, and he's introduced this way.
I'm sorry, I shouldn't laugh, because someday, someone might laugh about my style.
Usually, when writing a book, we carefully don't repeat characters' names too often, otherwise it gets redundant
I think this is a record of repetitions.
Raj and Dev are fighting, as in every good Bollywood movie.
I mean, I get it that you can forget about the style if the story is great, but here it's just...
This one isn't badly written, but is useless.
You must have guessed, with the other excerpts, that there is no space for feelings...
And a lot more space for action, which wouldn't be bad if it were an action novel.
In this scene, Winnie's looking for a bindi to put on.
She could have taken a bindi... and that's it.
I'm sorry if you feel like I bash the novel, I'm only explaining how the style is a flaw.
Those who write books are often told that they can't write for cinema nor television, and vice versa.
So there's a line. It can be crossed, both styles aren't incompatibles, but in this case, it doesn't work.
But there are positive points that we're going to look at right away... after the characters.
The characters
I LOVED Winnie's passion!
In From Twinkle With Love... what was her name? Oh, Twinkle, it's in the title *laughs*
Twinkle was passionated by cinema, but it was overthrown by her passion for boys.
But in My So-Called Bollywood Life, Winnie LIVES for Bollywood!
I really rooted for her in those cases.
She compares her life to Bollywood movies, she's passionated, she's working hard for her dreams...
She's organized, enterprising, she has great leadership and initiative skills
The only flaw, and maybe it's because I don't like Love Triangles, is her two suitors
Even if Raj and Dev both have a certain depth to their persona, which is really great...
Since she could have demonized Raj and idealized Dev.
But both are really possessive.
It's too bad I haven't read any excerpts about it... Let's just say some words are better from SRK's mouth...
than on paper. Let's just say that.
Winnie's "rival" for Raj's heart, [Jenny], is just a "basic white bitch" (Sorry for the expression, it's this way)
Always really agressive, without reason, her only goal is to be mean, and malign, and immature
The Big Bad Vilain without any depth.
Bridget, Winnie's best friend, was kind of cool because she's tolerant and open-minded
She's taking part in Winnie's mother's pooja.
She gets Bollywood's references
But she also have her own passion: Pride & Prejudice!
I thought their friendship was really cool!
Except that at some point, Bridget only works towards Winnie's happiness, which got on my nerves...
It's not a trope I like, for secondary characters deserve a life as well.
Nevertheless, their friendship was great and interesting!
In fact, if I could have connect with the characters, I would have loved them a lot more.
And finally, I think I agreed more with adults than with the young ones at this point, which proves I'm old.
Story & Ideas
This book IS a Bollywood movie, so why is it called "So-Called"? It's a Bollywood life!! Literally!
The 80 last pages are way more interesting than the 200 first ones, in my opinion.
The 200 first pages focus on the Love Triangle, but the love story is still rushed, which is paradoxical.
But I felt like things escaladated so quickly between Dev and Winnie, I didn't have time to root for them.
The style bears a great deal, but...
if it had been more elaborated, I would have enjoy it like a guilty pleasure.
Events are pretty much non-likely, with big coincidences, like in Bollywood movies.
The ideas didn't surprise me, except for Dev's secret.
Because he hides something from Winnie, and in fact, it's not that big and it's pretty cool!
But I consider she overreacts since it was kind of rushed.
I'm really hard on this book, I'm sorry!
Informations!
There are LOADS of informations!
Food, as usual, clothes, as ever, and an entire description of a pooja!
We have a few details on astrology.
Bollywood movies references, of course!
And a few sentences in punjabi and in hindi
EXTRAS!
Extras saved the book!
First, wonderful book cover! I bought it only because of the cover! It's blue and purple, Chandāga's colors.
And every new chapter presents a review from Winnie's Bollywood movies reviews.
My favorite is the one for Goliyon ki rasleela Ram-Leela
A rate of 5 stars
I thought exactly the same thing when I first saw Ram-Leela!
Sharma included reviews for all the movies Winnie refers to in chronological order
And at the end, there's a marvelous Bollywood movies list that we will all watch together!
I think I'll keep the book just for the list.
In fact, it would be interesting that Étoile and I take this list and give a micro-critic of the movies we watched
If you want, and if Étoile want to.
Étoile is not here :(
But she'll be back soon, promise!
An idea to keep
There's also an expression that Winnie uses and that I'll re-use with other actors: Holy Baby Shahrukh Khan!
To conclude: I didn't like this book. I'm sorry.
If you liked it or if you want to love it, please do! Every book needs love.
Read it if "filmy writing-style" doesn't bother you, if you want to read about a sweet love story
I didn't really talk about it, but Dev and Winnie are kind of sweet, and Dev is a great guy although possessive.
If you love Love Triangles, read it! And if you love Bollywood movies references, knock yourself out
My opinion shouldn't influence yours.
If you have any suggestion, please write to me at chandagabollywood@gmail.com
Or contact us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram (all links are in the description box)
We also have a Translation Blog and an account on the Bollyshake website
It's the end of the 7th episode of Moukītāben
I am Mouki from Chandāga
And I'll see you soon for another book review
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét