BOOK REVIEW: The Bride Who Would Not Burn by Rajesh Talwar

The Bride Who Would Not Burn by Rajesh Talwar
Genres: Fiction

Rajesh Talwar is a prolific writer of modern India. This is his third published book I have read in a month. He has touched few themes that the modern Indian society either still considered them as taboo or are not taken serious enough such that the issue become might have a chaotic effect for some time over the whole society directly or indirectly. One of them is the issue of dowry and its side-effects. This disease is still in practice in this country and is one of the realities of modern India.

A perfect example is the play, The Bride Who Would Burn. It speaks the story of a young and attractive protagnist, Poonam, who lives in Model Town, Delhi has an arranged marriage with Ravinder who manages a shop together with his father in Ghaziabad. The boy’s family have expectations of a fat dowry from the marriage. Ravinder hopes to set up shop independently in an expensive commercial area. Poonam’s mother Mrs Bajaj has hidden her financial status from the family her daughter is marrying into. When that family’s expectations of a large dowry are not met, things turn sour. Very sour.

Things are about to turn smoky and acrid as Mrs Arora the mother-in-law starts to scheme and plan on how to use a kerosene stove to get rid of her daughter-in-law. This is a typical some Indian households of modern nation. The author here tries to educate the reader of serious manner consisting dowry and its after effects in the form of this play. The storyline has a humorous way to convey its theme.

The pace of the play is fast for a reader to go through the text by understanding the message, author Rajesh Talwar wants his reader to think about. The play does convey the message but I think the characterisation could have been more strong. The humour does has an effect on the reader’s to keep things interesting. The writing style is fluent and copes well with the pace of the text.

I am glad to read this play and review it here and see that modern India is still aware of its deep-rooted disease. Hopefully, we will get rid if them, all at once and once for all.

3 out of 5.

---

Disclaimer: I received a reading copy but that doesn’t have any impression on this review.

~Find me on~

BLOG | GOODREADS | MEDIUM | TWITTER | FACEBOOK