‘Sisters’ is
an exciting novel by Shobha De. It tells an absorbing and thrilling story of
two sisters Mikki (Mallika) and her half-sister Alisha. Alisha was born of
Hiralal and his mistress Leelaben. It is also the story of violence and wide
conspiracy that is hatched by Ramanbhai, a long and well-trusted man (servant)
of the Hiralal Industries. His conspiracy is exposed by the end of the novel
when two sisters, Mikki and Alisha who hate and despise each other in the
beginning of the novel, have started liking and doting on each other.
It is also the
story of the illicit relationships between Hiralal and Leelaben, Mikki and
Navin, Mikki and Binny, Alisha and Navin, and Alisha and Dr. Kurien. Shobha De
exposes the illicit relations and affairs as well as liaisons among the so
called upper class people and the business community. This novel contains sex
and sensuality sometimes accompanied by violence. Sex is a divine gift; it
cannot be separated from the human life. Sex is the means of procreation, a
sustained means of the creation in the universe.
The debasement
and degradation set in man’s/woman’s life when sex is misused and abused. The
degradation comes about in the life of the tycoon of tycoons Hiralal as he
continues to have a long-life mistress Leelaben and when he rapes the wife of
Bahadur Singh, the watchman. Misfortune befalls Binny as he continues abusing
Mikki sexually even though he is already a married man with two children. The
female writers are straightforward and progressively bolder in depicting the
issue of adultery and fornication and liaisons. Shobha De tries to expose the
hypocrisy of the upper class people or business community who indulge themselves
in sexual over-indulgence, linking, and illicit relationships. It is
unfortunate to note that this scenario is emerging in the upper class and
sporadically in the middle class as well.
Some critics
strongly opine that Shobha De novels are replete with erotica or pornography.
On the other hand, some fans of her say that her novels are not blue, explicit
and erotic because they do not contain obscene, explicit words and expressions.
Shobha De is a true traditionalist and a believer in the marriage institution.
Neither does her work nor does she pose a threat to the marriage institution.
The novel is
set in the corrupt world of big business. The novel opens with the preparation
of the funeral for Hiralal and his wife Maltiben. The couple is being killed in
an air crash. It is reported in the obituary that they are survived by only one
daughter Mallika (Mikki). It says, “Survived by only one daughter, Mallika,
studying at present in the USA. In fact, Hiralal, the undisputed tycoon of
tycoons of the Hiralal Industries had a liaison with Leelaben. Through this
illicit relationship he had a daughter Alisha. Mikki, nineteen-years-old has
left her studies in the USA and got home to supervise the funeral. While
mourning her father’s death her eyes don’t well with tears. On the contrary,
she is aware of her white but sexy sari and choli. She giggles before the
mirror. She is prurient. She is obsessed with her sexy, curvaceous and
voluptuous figure.
Alisha gets
peevish after reading the obituary. She becomes conscious of her equal right to
her father’s fortune and wealth. She is prevented from entering and joining the
mourning by Ramanbhai. Later on Mikki comes to know that the young girl is
Alisha, her half-sister. Mikki observes about Alisha is a really attractive young
girl.
Mikki abandons
her plan to continue her education in the US when she learns about the Hiralal
Industries is in a mess and it needs injecting a lot of money to prevent it
from collapsing. Shanay is a worth remembering character. It is Shanay who
turns out to be a hero by saving Mikki from the ferocious clutches of Ramanbhai
and Bahadur Singh. Ramanbhai is a well-trusted man but he has an axe to grind.
He is cunning, crafty, sly and wily. He is almost Machiavellian. He has a willy
plan to keep away Shanay, Navin and even Binny from Mikki so that he could
overtake the Hiralal Industries. Even he has had a hand in eliminating Hiralal
and Binny from his way. It is Bahadur Singh who kidnaps Mikki at the behest of
Ramanbhai. He forces Bahadur Singh to dance to his tunes instigating him that
it was Hiralal who had raped his wife. Ramanbhai finds himself in the clink. By
this time Mikki has lost her weight. She is almost anaemic. Alisha takes her
sister Mikki to Geneva for convalescence. The both sisters have tenderness
towards each other, and are reunited.
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