Book Review: Vizag Blue by Anil CS Rao

Vizag Blue by Anil CS Rao is a riveting novella with exploring themes like our identity in the world, infantile heart of an artist, dark sides of our emotions, sub-audition between two women, longing for love and attention, and most importantly relationship between a nurse and her patient.

Set in Vizag (earlier called as Vishakhapatnam), a city in the eastern coastal of India, the book basically features Kalpana Iyer as its lead character. However Usha, her nurse, takes over all the talking and action and sounds like a protagonist. Kalpana becomes mute while doing a rehearsal of the play – Shakuntala in her university. She refuses to speak to anyone, including her boyfriend Prem. Dr Reena affirms Kalpana fit and thinks that with nature around her she will convalescence better.

Nurse Usha and Kalpana move to a secluded sea house. Both ladies look initially at rest and fine there…they smoke, sew clothes, write letters, and stroll along the beach line, as a reader you may wait for Kalpana to speak and reveal something big and unexpected to chug the storyline ahead. Well, that you can figure out if you stick with the book. Even if one grapples with the proper implication of the story, the other side of the novella is its high visual quality. It’s a graphic novella with lovely comic illustrations. The author did not over use any colour, his frames are sequential, dialogues have proper bubbles…and eyes of the characters are simply luminous. Everything has been enhanced dazzlingly. The pictures speak, depiction of nature, silence, and tension – Anil built all via his talent of comical illustrations.

Coming back to the story, Kalpana tries to understand her stance of existence in the world, probably she wanted to distinguish between real and reel life. Usha does her best to invoke and incite the lady. But more than that she put trusts in Kalpana as a fine listener? Will Kalpana reciprocate the same to Usha? As the time passes, situation between both ladies sour…Usha serves Kalpana and expects results but too much loneliness and silence perturbs the nurse. Many questions could form in a readers mind – trying to understand the true nature and motives of Kalpana – and probably that is the best thing about the novella. The author leaves the ending at a cliffhanger.

Anil’s words compliment his art work, he uses words with weigh that leave an impact and describe the situation exactly. Sound of nature and tempo of emotions is portrayed by weaving words in the canvas of illustrations. The novella looks like a perfect work of a comic artist.

Buy the book from Amazon

Comments

Poem Summary: Where The Mind Is Without Fear by Rabindranath Tagore

Poem by Rabindranath Tagore: Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high Where knowledge is free Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls Where words come out from the depth of truth Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit Where the mind is led forward by thee Into ever-widening thought and action Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. Short Summary: This poem is written by Rabindranath Tagore during pre-independence days, when India was a colony of the British. The underlying theme of the poem is absolute freedom; the poet wants the citizens of his country to be living in a free state. According to the poem, we see that the poet is expressing his views there should be a country, like where people live without any sort of fear and with pure dignity…they should

Book Review: The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond

Among all Ruskin Bond books, The Blue Umbrella has, so far, gathered immense applaud from readers and critics alike. This is a short novel, but the kind of moral lessons it teaches to us are simply overwhelming. This is a story of Binya, a poor little girl living with her mother and an elder brother, Bijju, in a small hilly village of Garhwal. One day while herding her two cows back home, she stumbles upon some city people enjoying the picnic in the valley. She is enthralled to see them well-groomed and rich. She craves to be one like them and among many other things of their, a blue frilly umbrella catches her attention. She begins craving for it. On the other hand, the city people get attracted by her innocent beauty and the pendant in her neck. The pendant consists of leopard’s claw – which is considered a mascot widely in the hills. Binya trades her pendant off with the blue umbrella. The blue umbrella is so much beautiful that soon it becomes a topic of conversation fo

Poem Summary: Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Ozymandias is a short poem of fourteen lines written by Percy Bysshe Shelley. The concurrent theme of the poem is that nothing remains intact and same forever in this world. Even the brightest of metal, one day decays with passage of time. The throne name of Egyptian King Ramesses is Ozymandias. It was his dearest desire to preserve himself forever by building a huge statue that he thought would never tumble down. Stanza 1: I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; Summary: The poet narrates the poem through the eyes of a traveler who seems to have come back from a remote and far-away land, referring to Egypt. The traveler r

Kevein Books and Reviews

Search This Blog