Search

Total Pageviews

Tuesday, 3 January 2017

Book Review: Colorful Notions: The RoadTrippers 1.0

Would you give up your high-paying job and comfortable personal life to drive ten thousand kilometers across India? Just for fun!

Three twenty-somethings dare to do just that! While the two guys take turns to drive, the girl gives voice-over as they record their entire journey on a handycam.

Ab, Sasha and Unnati are ordinary youngsters, rendered special by the feat they accomplish. As they recount their adventures, I crave to live their journey all the more. They look at each other with a glint in their eyes, as if refurbishing those memories, as they narrate their spooky time at Bhangarh Fort, strange escapades at Wagah Border and Sundarbans, car breakdowns, wild animals, near-death experiences and highway robbers! It's nothing less than crazy.

I doubted if I'd ever have the gumption to create such experiences. So I did the next best thing - I penned a book about them, and their roadtrip.

Colorful Notions is a journey of three young hearts on the Indian terrain and into the inner recesses of their souls, giving a new perspective to relationships, love and life.

My Review:

There is hardly any doubt that the blurb of the book gets to you. There will always remain something charmingly attractive about the idea of a road trip. Or the idea of undertaking a journey around the country. Or the idea of recording your journey into something concrete. The plot of the book is all of these things combined, and more.
There was a sense of variety in the experiences, which also seeped into the writing, words and expression. It wasn't trite or platitudinous. 

At certain places, it was funny- like a Bollywood movie that's not really supposed to be a comedy but the cinematography could easily render it as one. The style of writing does not impose anything- neither the seriousness nor the fun- which is perhaps both a good and a bad thing. Good, because the reader gets to give his/her own mood to the book, but it does little in the story's favor to endear the book to the reader. 

The better part of the book, for me, was without a doubt, the journey and experiences. So diverse and yet so real. India, with its different colors made its presence felt in a travel fiction such a this, and that was a major, major highlight. 
The way it ended, however, was a departure from the way all the rest of the book was. I am still not sure if I liked the pace, but it was definitely a one-time read. 


[Review copy received by The Tales Pensieve]







Popular Posts