Wednesday 13 June 2018

Nagin by Mayur Didolkar: a review

For everybody in today's time this is not a topic which has not been used. Starting from movies and carrying forward to television serials the stories of ichadhari Naags and Nagins are well known. Mayur Didolkar, in his book Nagin deals with exactly that; the most sought-after topic in today's world. When I first saw the book Nagin I actually thought that this would be a complete novel, had I not read what the back cover says about the book. So, here's what the back cover says, for you.

According to the back cover- Loving wife, obedient daughter, loyal friend. But if you provoke her, she will raise her hood and spit poison. A woman is stalked by a man she had once rejected. A housewife discovers a plot to kill her husband. A blind young girl is chased by an underworld gang. But these are no ordinary women. Some of them aren't even women. You have been warned.



The tagline of the book reads her love is fierce, her Venom is fatal. What is also exactly what the nine short stories in the book portrays to the audience. My thoughts with disrupted when I completed the first chapter and the understood that this is going to be a racy anthology. I usually do follow a rhythm but with this I wouldn't anymore as I used to with other anthologies so I will not comment on each and every story but would give a generalized review of the whole book. The first thing that I would like to talk about the book is that every story is extremely fast paced and not lengthy at all.

Once a story ends you would not feel that something was left amiss, as all the parts of the story are covered and then it ends. Every story also is not written on a random whim and fancy of the author. With a specific interest kept in mind, this book is for all kinds of audiences. I love the first story and trust me when I say the choice of making the story The first story couldn't have been better for the author. It creates a field for all the other stories that are to follow and a very strong field at that.

All the stories have presence of ichchadhari Nags and Nagins and even though set in the modern day world, it might also come as straight out of a folklore. What makes the book interesting is that every story is made believable to the audience. What makes the book a bit tedious for me at times is that, also along with ichadhari Naags and Nagins, there is the mention of other shape shifting creatures. Sometimes even those are the shape shifting creatures are the highlight of a particular story. That is something that put me off the book at times, because when you are reading the book knowing that it is all about Nags and Nagins you really would not want to know about any other shapeshifting creatures being the limelight of the story.

Apart from that if I have to speak about anymore cons of this story then I would like to say that I did not like the cover. The cover, to begin with, could have been a lot more better because the content of the book is not really what the cover depicts the content should have. If the book had rather a simple cover then I guess it would've been accepted more by a wider audience which would have worked for the favor of the book. All in all a very good read, I would like to read more from the author and rate this book 3.75 out of 5. 

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