This book true to its name evokes
bizarre emotions! The build up to the book release, the high profile author,
buzz in the media and the possible scope for sensational revelations is enough
to arouse curiosity even in lazy readers like me. Suchitra Krishnamurthy is a
film actor who had a sensational release with Shahrukh Khan many years back in Khabhi Haa Khabhi Naa. People sat up and
took notice of a pretty petite youngster who breezed through her role with confidence
coming in from her successful brush with TV in Chunaoti.
Suchitra has also
dabbled successfully in various forms of creative art like painting, singing
and of course writing. It is evident that people tend to now recognize her more
for once being married to director Shekhar Kapoor who made the brilliant Bandit Queen and Mr.India and then went international. It is not for us to
conjecture on what went wrong between them, but her latest book Drama Queen does on many occasions touch
upon a residual bitterness evoked in a comical fashion with references to her
inadequate alimony.
Humour. That then is the intended
mood of the whole book as Suchitra goes on a wild trip down recent memory lane
with herself, relating in fascinating detail her various trysts in life, her ‘Bindaas’
attitude drawing shocked reactions from her mother who incidentally becomes
almost the main protagonist when she starts bouncing off all her travails using
her like a mirror to review her own behavior.
She does deride herself quite a
bit and she does sound pretty serious when she writes about a proposal to Ram
Gopal Verma and his reaction to it. I thought it was more an effort to get it (
the incident) out of her system and end the sense of humiliation which she must
have felt after what she must have later realized it as a not so desirable act.
Writing and mocking herself, relating the various anecdotes is probably a sort
of cathartic process for her.
The book begins very promisingly.
It does hit you like having strayed into a long catty Facebook conversation of friends. You do
break into grins frequently at descriptions of some situations where she wants
to get rid of some ‘nose in the air’
society’s clownish friends or marvel at her detailed description of the tryst
in the director’s office, her frank confessions of her actual relationships
with her friends and family though you start squirming when she enters into pet
fornication territory which I thought was out of place.
The books keeps you on a attention
leash till half way as you already have a clear picture image etched out of the
protagonist and her parents but one starts drifting when the narration tends to
get repetitive with nothing new happening.
The book tends to lose you when you
start asking yourself “ Yeah got this , what next “ and then there is no
answer.
The book will appeal to all gossip
hungry readers whose avarice extends to seeking bliss in voyeurism through
words that describes the author’s otherwise private space.
It is brave writing exhibiting the
talent of a woman uninhibited by her circumstances and may appeal to readers
having a curiosity about the afterlife
of a wonderful petite actress who disappeared from the scene and has reappeared
on the creative canvas once again to make a mark.
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