Book Review
Title: A Thousand Unspoken Words
Author: Paulami Dutta Gupta
Publisher: Readomania
ISBN: 978-81-929975-9-9
Genre: Fiction / Romance
Cover image of ATUW, published by Readomania
Love, the oft-used and abused four-letter word, especially in the context of a man-woman relationship often has nuances and layers in it, that can be both intimidating and incisive, as it can be enlightening and transcending to a new realm altogether. While being part of Tilottama and Musafir’s jagged journey to explore their seething, heart-rending chemistry, we the readers of ‘A Thousand Unspoken Words’ are tossed and turned over a thousand times, while looking into the meaning and essence of their mutual yearning, their drifting apart, the crescendo of their acceptance of each other. The book, authored by the national award-winning writer/screenplay writer of ‘Ri: Homeland of Uncertainty’ and the recently acclaimed and award-winning ‘Onatah’, Paulami Dattagupta, and published by Readomania is a rare treat for those discerning readers of romance and drama who love to read unique, psychologically gratifying journeys of the protagonists. ‘A Thousand Unspoken Words’ is undoubtedly such a journey that will make them yearn for more.
Musafir, the unrelenting, the fiercely anti-establishment author and later, the grave opportunist and ambitious writer, entrepreneur one day walks into Tilottama’s wet, ardent world in a crisis situation in Kolkata (which will always remind me of how Captain Bluntschli entered the mushy, private world of Raina Petkoff’s bedroom in George Bernard Shaw’s ‘Arms and the Man’ and becomes her endearing ‘chocolate-cream soldier’). As the ‘fateful’ night subsides, he tears her apart when he leaves her with a letter professing his situation and his identity. Later, when they meet years after, and Tilottama is tormented to see her Musafir transforming from the idealist, crusader and hero to the failed, yet humane Riddhiman, it is the strength of the fervent passion and emotions inside her (at times too obsessive to be true), which ultimately leads both Musafir/Riddhiman and his love Tilottama to their catharsis/culmination.
Tilottama’s love for her Musafir and the ideologies that he represented as a crusader is at times dreamy, verdant and too good to be true, while at other times her palpable, raw and multi-dimensional feelings for her fire-brand hero who has failed both himself and her becomes an intense, moving inner quest for her self-discovery. Together, as they meet and estrange, only to be reunited later, they twist, sparkle and burn, and Paulami’s deft narration of both their inner and their outer worlds, comprising of the other minor characters in the narrative, wins hands-down. The various strands of the narrative are woven so seamlessly and so effortlessly that one wonders if it is all a movie being played in front of his eyes, portraying a saga of emotionally burdened, yet soulful characters. In the end, when both Musafir and Tilottama solidify their bond, yet their ‘thousand unspoken words’ still hover in the arid air between them, the reader is left with both the music of spoken words and the music of inexplicable silence that lends a scintillating aroma to the story.
As a reader, I would highly recommend this page-turner of a novel to all those who love intense, substantial storytelling and real-life depictions of the protagonists rather than mushy, implausible and feel-good romances.
Available in Amazon India, Amazon worldwide and at leading bookstores in India.
https://www.amazon.com/Thousand-Unspoken-Words-story-fallen-ebook/dp/B0189NOKW8?ie=UTF8&keywords=A%20Thousand%20Unspoken%20Words&qid=1464727675&ref_=sr_1_2&sr=8-2 (Amazon worldwide)
Reflections, Ruminations, Illuminations 