A: what are you reading?
B: Shobha de
C: ah! Haven’t you before?
B: I’ve read ‘sisters’ & now reading ‘starry nights’
A: Ugly portrayal of the glamorous world. You should read surviving men and have a good laugh.
C: don’t be so sober. Does Shobha de ever write anything else but sexuality? Stars, prostitutes, extra marital affairs, illegal children, mentally demented people, Police cases, murders, etc. etc. etc. Violence and sexually keeps dancing at the back ground while the beauty of the story waits for ‘her man’.
B: well! That was the plot for ‘sisters’.
C: it repeats for ‘Strange obsession’ as well.
B: but I heard it’s a story about homosexuality.
C: ye! But it’s a same plot with lil changes here n there. There is a beauty- suddenly thrown into an extreme situation. The helpless girly then comes across a hunk in the shining armor. Love at first sight. And the dude helps her out of the troubles.
In ‘sisters’ the trouble was – business crisis whereas in ‘ strange…’ it’s a mentally challenged lesbo.
B: she doesn’t seem so obviously repetitive. Her films…
A: Oh she does! Her stories frame the glamorous characters of the society- sexuality and violence guide the theme of the story. And the most obvious of all is: a girl growing into a more mature state of mind. Its most obvious in the book you are reading now.
B: starry nights? Story of a star...
A: prostitute.
another typical thing about her writing… She justifies the central woman so that you are forced to like her or sympathize with her.
In ‘strange obsession’ she underlines the prejudice about lesbians.
B: what prejudices?
A: being homosexual = abnormal.
C: Ya Right! Like all Lesbos are mentally challenged.
A: Oh! No no! She has used it to grab lotto sympathy for her central character
C: OH! HELL! Don’t tell me you won’t have sympathized with the young model from ‘strange…’ if it had been a guy.
A: Well! Not as much.
Won’t it be more frustrating for any girl to feel helpless in front of another woman than she might feel in case it had been a man?
B: Tell me about the book..
C: It grossed me out. I kept throwing it away every time the lunatic did something bad to the beauty of the story. But then picked it again hoping that something nice could happen and I could have a reason to feel relaxed.
A: Yeah! Its disturbing. Very disturbing.
C: Amrita – a model, comes to Bombay, accidentally meets a woman on her very first day… there are stories that this woman’s earlier girl friend- a model again- disappeared out of the blue. Amrita, clueless of this fact, keeps in touch with her … and the woman starts getting obsessive… there are a few guys like some model, a photographer Amrita goes out with… but they don’t have enough guts to face the psycho…
so like I said the beauty keeps waiting.
That Amrita female is too dumb. Had I been in her place I would have …
A: Done the same.
C: yeah!
B: what!? Why?
A: She is helpless. She has her parents back in Delhi… can’t tell them the problem because that could end her modeling career. Can’t runaway. Can’t take police help…
B: now why is that?
C: The lunatic’s father is the commissioner. And she lies to the girl that her dad was sexually abusive after her mother’s death and that’s why she feels so ‘LONELY and UNPROTECTED’ and doesn’t live with her father. Every time Amrita tries to escape, the crazy female finds her and keeps turning her life into hell.
And the glamour industry boys are not ready to get busted by a lesbo. They don’t have power & brains to face her.
Worst is when Amrita’s family takes the lesbo to be a nice woman. The girl is trapped in her own goddamn room. Her family, clueless of the problem, puts her in a room with the lunatic… can you imagine.
B: Trapped with another woman and helpless! Oh god!
C: Comes her man in shining armor… marries her, rescues her from the lesbo.
B: that’s such a typical filmy end…
C: Actually end is most interesting… it goes faster n lots of things happening… she finds a rich guy who can help her, meanwhile meets her knight… then the whole circus of their marriage and running away, hiding from the lesbo, fighting, tapes, fire…
TOTAL FILMY.
B: So! what do you suggest should I read it?
A: I suggest don’t waste your time on Shobha de’s writings.