Thursday, November 28, 2013

Arzee The Dwarf - Chandrahas Choudhury


I came to know about this book when i was browsing flikpart for some Indian author books. Intrigued by the name , i bought it.  This is the story of Arzee the dwarf, he is a assistant projectionist at  "Noor" cinema . His dream is to become a head projectionist in Noor after the departure of the current one - Pheroz .Another dream is to get marry a girl without any form of dwarfism  - that is a 'completeness' in life. But everything collapses when he came to know that the owners of  Noor decided to sell it.

The romance between Arzee and Monique was physical , like normal , and told beautifully but something is missing in the female character portrayal - partially drawn. The author should have given some more space to her. Then there is Deepak , the chaser, who chases Arzee  to pay the money he owes to the betting syndicate after he lost the cricket betting. The conversation between these two brought lots of laughter. But the way they handled the searching  of Monique looks cinematic but worth reading.
"The rose of peace can never bloom in the soil of unrest"
One good thing about the story is, in spite, of all the problems the hero gets into, the author able to brings smile frequently .  His original name was Arzoo - 'desire' in Urdu was changed latter to Arzee - 'plea' , we can understand why it had changed.The metaphor is that life moves on despite of our defects and  inability . The writing is rich in vocabulary and kudos to author for bringing everyday life with all its ups and down so beautifully.

A wonderful debut novel , worth reading!


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