Guest Post by Garima Rathi
Rating: 2/5
Shweta Bachchan Nanda
Shweta Bachchan Nanda, daughter of the power couple Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan, has penned down her debut book, ‘Paradise Towers’. She is also an entrepreneur and a columnist.
My Cerebrations
Noted politicians, journalists and celebrities author books and they usually create a stir in the publishing world. These books pique the interests of the people and sell like hot cakes. Unfortunately, the brouhaha surrounding this book soon became as silent as the grave.
Shweta Bachchan Nanda Book
Shweta Bachchan Nanda has created a fictional paradise-of-sorts. Paradise Towers, as the name suggests is the name of a residential building in Mumbai. It is inhabited by families belonging to almost every religion and region of India. There is a Bengali family where the daughter is studious; an over the top NRI Punjabi family; a Muslim family with 5 kids (their lack of family planning is the subtle highlight); a Marathi family and a snoopy old lady are some of the hand-picked inhabitants by the author.
Everything that can be termed as ‘cliché’ happens at Paradise Towers. The elderly lady spends her waking hours acting as the unofficial watchwoman. She constantly pries on the on-goings of her neighbours, through her binoculars. There is an inter-caste love affair blossoming and a hush-hush romance saga among maids. Then there is the spice; the drama, a murder. Phew!
The Plot, the Writing and the Characterization
The writing is good with beautiful sentence formations and fine vocabulary. The author’s attention to detail is commendable. She definitely has the potential to write a good book. Unfortunately, this book does no justice to her craft.
The plot could have been molded into a great story but what finally takes shape is insipid. The book is like a maze, that you trot to find your way to the story but are left stranded at the exit gate, without one.
This book is like ‘describe what you see’ rather than ‘tell a tale’. The book is filled with descriptions of characters and surroundings, that are left dangling on a thin thread of hope to become part of the bigger picture.
The characterization is good but is clichéd. Alas, there is no wow factor or a USP attached to the book.
My Perspective
I picked it up out of my curiosity to read a celebrity’s tale. What appeared to be a promising read turned out to be a disappointing one. All descriptions and no dialogues made this a dull book.
