Book Review #89: Men and Dreams in the Dhauladhar By Kochery. C. Shibu

Title: Men and Dreams in the Dhauladhar

Author: Kochery C. Shibu

Publishers: Niyogi Books

Genre: General Fiction

Pages: 287 (Paperbound)

Source: Review copy sent by the author

This is an interesting book from a debut author. The narration and the characters developed and the background for the story imagined is quite satisfying. As a first time author, I would say that, the attempt is very nice. The mystery in the novel remains intact till the end and the story is quite gripping. There are numerous characters from the novel and each of the characters holds its importance to a particular scene or the plotline in the novel. The plot of book seems quite unusual.

We have protagonists from different parts of the cities. An engineer and a Kalari (famous martial art form in Kerala) practitioner, Nanda, whose family was constantly marred with the factions in his home town. His family had a long unsettled feud with another local gang in Kerala, which resulted in several deaths in his family including his father, his uncles, and finally his own brother. He finally marries his deceased brother’s wife Nandinikutty.  Events led to one another and Nanda finds himself a part of this murderous rage and avenges his brother’s killers in a mob fight. From then on, he is on a run and changes various places and cities and finally settles as a site engineer in a Dam construction project in Dhauladhar.

We also have other two protagonists, Rekha a doctor cum dancer and Khusro a Kashmiri youth, who was recruited by Pakistani terrorist group to conduct a terror operation inside Kashmir. The background stories of these two protagonists was overdone and there was no necessary to write so many pages describing life and pasts of these two when they add no add value to the ongoing plotline.

Anyway, fortunate events brings Rekha and Khusro close together and there will be a kind of weird love story between them. I didn’t expected that a highly educated girl, who travelled throughout the world, gave hundreds of dance performances will fall for a guy who is a terrorist in the making. Sure, Love is blind after all. Author made it possible in this fictitious work. The readers have to accept that without a shred of doubt. Whereas Khusro, the aspiring mujahiddeen, has a sense of morals left in him and he turns out to be sane when his fellow terrorists (whom he helped in crossing the border into Kashmir) tries to rape women and he couldn’t stand it and kills them. Thanks to the charm of Rekha.

The story is quite heavy for a reader who has no background or even an iota of information in the dam construction terminologies. It was overly done throughout the novel. The story deviates at many places and you feel at times that you’re reading a dam construction manual. Author could’ve avoided many technical details of the dam construction and rather should’ve given importance on how would the terrorists are plotting to blow up the dam.

The novel keeps its interesting point in each and every chapter. Readers will be constantly guessing what might happen next. That’s the best part of the novel. Nanda’s role was made bare minimum. He should’ve made some contributions in the actual story other than sitting with constant fear of police and not talking to anybody. The climax part of the novel was made too quickly I suppose. There should’ve been some action moments in the final few pages, as I personally felt, the climax part was the only shortcoming in the book. Otherwise, the story is interesting from beginning till the end.

The author keeps adding numerous new characters in each and every chapter. That’s one more shortcomings in the novel. I guess after second half, the author should’ve stopped adding more characters and instead should’ve developed the story with more intense and vigor. Overall, a new attempt and good narration.

My Rating:

4/5

(Note: I received this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.)