The Dowry Bride

Normally, I only write down reviews for books/movies that I adore, but this one is an exception. This is an extremely strong negative review of a piece of trash called "The Dowry Bride" by Shobhna Bantwal. It was lent to me by an Irish girl I was sharing a hostel room with in Cairns.

The story is about a girl Megha whose marriage is arranged by her parents. The man she is married to is a weakling and completely under his mother's thumb. His mother is a tyrant who is looking to extract a huge sum as dowry from the Megha's parents. There is immense pressure on Megha to produce a baby, and although she does get pregnant, she loses the baby. Her mother-in-law, once she realizes that the Megha's parents have no money to give her, decides to do away with the girl with her son's help, and marry him off to someone who has more money. Megha manages to escape this plot of killing her by setting her to fire, and somehow manages to find her way to her husband's cousin, who is a man respected in the community. Meanwhile, the evil woman and her son now state that Megha stole from them and ran away, and sic the cops on her. It turns out that the husband's cousin Mega ran to, had been carrying a torch for her all this while, and so hides her, waiting for the uproar to die down. Of course, this implies that they are in close contact, and end up falling in love. In the end, the mom-in-law is requisitely punished, while Mega marries the cousin.

There are a number of problems I have with this novel. Firstly, it is awfully written. I am actually surprised that it was allowed to be published in the form that it exists. Secondly, although it is true that dowry is still a problem in India, the way this book tackles dowry, arranged marriage, and other social issues in India leaves a very wrong impression on those who don't know the reality, for e.g. my Irish roommate. She was surprised to learn that in India there are a number of women who choose their mate themselves, that dowry is now a rarity rather than the norm, and that apart from isolated incidents of female infanticide, girl babies are welcomed into families as much as boy babies are). I do understand that the author was trying to bring awareness of the dowry issue to the western world, but her book portrays an India of may be 40 years ago rather than current India. Lastly, in order to add some spice to the story, the author introduces the love angle between Megha and the cousin, which is something that might definitely happen in current India, but totally would not have happened in the India of 40 years ago. Thus the result is this unsavory mixture of pathos and sex which is really hard to swallow and leaves a bad taste in one's mouth. There have been other books which have talked about sex and love in an older India, like "The Far Pavilions" by MM Kaye, but they tackle the subject in a much better and authentic fashion, rather than this potboiler.

All in all, this book is a complete waste of time, and the only reason I read it was that I had no other printed material to read!

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I also noticed that the same author plans on releasing a book about female infanticide in India!

The Namesake

This one is going to be a joint review of both the book by Jhumpa Lahiri, as well as the movie. I had read the book quite a while ago, and hence when I watched the movie yesterday, the details of the book were not very clear in my head. After I watched the movie, I went back and read the book again.

Jhumpa Lahiri has done a lovely job with The Namesake. I guess a lot of the material of the book has been derived from her own experiences as an ex-pat Bengali. This makes the book extremely authentic, and fun to read. I am not extremely fond of her particular writing style, but she does have an excellent story to tell. She paces the book really well, and does a great job with character development. I also love the way she concentrates on the tiny details. Over all, The Namesake is a book I would recommend to everyone to read, not only because it has a great story, but also because it paints an interesting picture of Indians in America.

As far as Mira Nair's adaptation of The Namesake is concerned, I found the movie delightful, charming as well as poignant. Tabu has done a great job as Ashima, while Irfan Khan shines as Ashok. I was also really surprised by the depth displayed by Kal Penn. I had only seen him in White Castle before, which was a completely different kind of movie. The movie has been touchingly filmed, and although it deviates a tiny bit in the details sometimes from the book, and leaves out quite a few of them, it is complete even if watched by itself. The scene that literally brought tears to my eyes was the scene in which Gogol visits his dad's apartment in Cleveland, and steps into his Dad's shoes. In all, excellent movie to watch.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

So it is finally here, the final installment on the adventures of Harry Potter. I would be lying if I said that I didnot spend a number of hours contemplating how it would all end. And I must say, I was relieved, as well as a little disappointed with Rowling's ending. I was relieved because everything turned out as I had been expecting - Voldemort dead, Harry and Ginny married, Ron and Hermione married, no important characters unexpectedly dead (apart from Fred), so no heartache (Yes, I am a rabid HP fan!). I am sure that this relief is shared by fans worldwide, who were dreading a more sad ending. On the other hand, I am also a little disappointed since this ending is entirely predictable, and there were really no major twists in the story. Although I might have shed a few tears at a bleaker end to the saga, it would have made for a more interesting book. That said, the writing of the book is as usual spectacular, making one not want to stop reading until the end of the book. I especially love the last duel of Harry with Voldemort, and also the redemption of Snape. By this time, one feels positively sorry for him. All in all, a good read. I am looking forward to reading what ever JK Rowling writes next.

The Dinner Game

The Dinner Game is a lovely French comedy about a rich publishing house owner, Pierre Brochant, who indulges in cruel rich man's games which involve making fun of others. He and a few of his friends organize a dinner every wednesday, and each of them bring with them an "idiot", the dumbest and weirdest person they can find. They then spend the entire evening covertly making fun of these poor people who think that they have been honoured by being invited to a dinner with such influential people.

The movie starts with the publishing house owner recruiting a new idiot, Francois Pignon, a guy who is extremely passionate about making buildings and structures with matchsticks. However, the evening that they are supposed to go to the dinner, Monsieur Brochant hurts his back. Pignon shows up at his house, and just as he is about to leave, Brochant not being in any state to go to the dinner, Brochant's wife calls, saying that she is leaving Brochant. Pignon stays back to help Brochant to bed, and hence begins the comedy of errors. The movie highlights how Brochant, from being the rich man condescending to help Pignon publish a book on his structures, goes to recruiting Pignon's help to discovering his wife's whereabouts. All throughout, Pignon, being the well-meaning idiot he is, tries to help Brochant, but ends up complicating things more. He calls Brochant's mistress and tells her that his wife has left him, turns away Brochant's wife thinking that she is the mistress, invites the mistress into the house thinking that she is the wife, etc. etc. The icing on the cake is at the end, when he tries to do a last good deed for Brochant by calling his wife and telling her how much Brochant loves her, and that this is not being dictated by Brochant but that he is speaking from a payphone. Brochant's wife melts and says that she will consider calling Brochant. Brochant is extremely grateful, and realizing the error of his ways, promises to never call anyone an idiot again. However, the very next minute, when Brochant's wife calls, Pignon answers the phone, and causes Brochant to break his promise.

The movie is extremely well made. The actors are both wonderful and have played their part to perfection. L'hermitte comes across very well as a jaded rich philanderer, while Villeret plays the dumb tax inspector with a passion for football and matchstick structures to a T. As with every good movie, one gets caught up in the narrative and extremely frustrated with the stupidity of the Pignon character. The movie had me pulling on my hair with frustration every time Pignon pulled a trick. At the same time, I could not help laughing at his antics. All in all, the movie is a lovely light-hearted comedy, which I would recommend to everyone.

Before I saw this movie, I had seen its Indian version, Bheja Fry. At that time, I had loved Bheja Fry because of the story. However, Bheja Fry pales in comparison to this movie, due to the wonderful acting by the actors in the original, and also due to the fact that Bheja Fry is pretty much a scene for scene remake of The Dinner Game. Thus, some jokes which work in the French context do not do so well in the Indian, and also some of the story background (like the leading character's having a mistress) does not fit in well with the normal Indian culture. I must say that although I was disappointed that Indian directors still resort to blatant copying of foreign films, I am glad that atleast now they are being a little better about choosing which films to rip off.