A Debut Novel

This debut novel veers on a fairy tale, sinuously curving at times into the half-real, half-surreal feel of a folk story, allowing the extravagant to hover around the real. The description of the medieval gadi (a fort-like mansion, in which live members of the Deshmukh family) and its expansive grounds that merge into endless undulating emerald fields stretching in all directions is spectacular. As is the detailing of the opulent grandeur of the mansion within: the carved wooden furniture, colours of the textile furnishings, the clothes that this Zamindar family wears and the lavish food that it is served at every meal. The rich hues, fragrances and tastes are quite overpowering, bringing to an Indian reader’s mind the sumptuous hyper-abundance of a Sanjay Leela Bhansali film.
Even as the novelist etches the personalities of the different members of the Deshmukh family vividly, yet her etching is selective, focusing largely on Zamindar Surendra, his brother’s two daughters Vijaya and Sree, their mother Saroja and the servant girl Katya who bears an uncanny resemblance to the younger daughter. The reader senses an impending unveiling here which will be fulfilled in the fullness of time. Yet why Saroja treats her elder daughter Vijaya with such viciousness is a mystery that, alas, is never quite answered. The other members of the family, though important in the scheme of things, recede into the background thereby reinforcing a sense of the mythic.