Storylines — Telling Movies in Words by Zubie Saurabh Sengupta
Publisher: Notion Press
Pages: 88
Price: Rs. 149 INR(paperback), Rs. 79 INR(Kindle Edition)
ISBN: 978–8885307147
Buy here: https://amzn.to/3JyDSHs
My take on the book:
Storylines is a collection of seven short stories, each with a different theme, and spanning a max of ten pages. Real Man is story of Hariya who moves to Mumbai when his village gets submerged with floods. With dreams and hope to build a decent life for his family, he ends up living life of a eunuch out of despair.
Everything but Love is about Rohit Sarkar who is unable to succeed as an author due to his emotional turmoil of being a closeted homosexual. The road to freedom is story of a housewife and a prostitute craving for love from the same man while trying to protect their respective daughters.
The healing touch is about Devika Narang who decides to counter her loneliness by working with an NGO to help heal earthquake victims. Her interaction with Vikram Shah, a victim who was depressed, changes Devika’s life for the better and worse, both. Mercedes is the story of Vishal and Rashmi who get obsessed with the luxury car owned by Vishal’s boss.
Spotlight is the story of Superstar Ronit Khera who runs away from his stardom as it suffocates him, while also giving message to his diehard fans on where stardom can sometimes lead to. Friends forever is about Amber and Meenakshi who are not able to forget their past relationship and as much as they try to change things in the present, it never moves beyond friendship.
All the seven stories are set in varied backdrops but have an underlying unsaid emotion of pain, sorrow and dreams shattered. Better editing could have made the book more appealing; some of the stories are too fictitious that I wish were a bit realistic; like in friends forever, characters are portrayed as learning new skills in a few days. Also, in some stories the twists and turns impress, while in others there are too many that come within a short span of times.
At less than 100 pages, this is a quick, short read; while there are aspects which could have been handled better, the emotions between the characters is what I liked most about these stories. Pick this one if you prefer reading short stories.
My rating:
3/5.