The story needs no telling. It is the skeleton followed by every romantic movie worth its salt – boy meets girl, they spar, there is a spark, then a misunderstanding, and finally all is resolved. In between, there is the sacrificing girlfriend, the gushing mother, the vamp camouflaged as a stunning beauty, the best female friend... It treads along a predictable path, resembling the formula of Mills and Boons. Except that it lacks the expertise and finesse of M & B romance. There are a few innovative personal touches, though. The flashbacks, such as where the protagonist Nandini reminiscences about her tricky affair with Aditya whet up one’s interest.
And while the over-the-top dialogues and one-dimensional characters do irritate in the beginning, the novel somehow grows on you till the end. It does not shy away from admitting its cheesiness and fluffiness. In fact, Dixit has gleefully added to the corny feel by classifying some characters as ‘villains’ (reminding readers of mustachioed, gun toting cowboy types) right in the beginning. Also, she has borrowed the title of her chapters from movies of every era possible – there is an unheard of Ek Hi Maksad, the legendary Mother India, and something as contemporary as Dil, Dosti, etc. And somehow the events in the chapter fit the title, or vice versa. Anyway, as stated before, this book is strictly for the movie buffs.
As a fitting tribute to such movies, the story revolves around the seemingly complicated but in reality immature love story between the gruff, broad shouldered man and the quivering girl who would lay down her life for him. Girl simpers and whimpers and pleads while the macho man just glowers and hollers at everyone. There is some sort of a miscommunication between them, but we don’t get it till the end; and when we do, it doesn’t seem at all convincing. In between, we have perfectly unbelievable but whistle-worthy moments like our hunk beating up the semi-cockroach guy in style.The author tries to be funny, too, but that does not work well for her. Most of the times she ends up making her characters spew bad jokes. But sometimes, if we wait patiently enough (and most of us won’t), we do obtain pearls of wisdom. One of them mentions that youngsters are “either orgasmic about brands or archenemies of materialism” which is so right on. Or her interpretation of how best female friends function – “till death do us apart or the next man, whichever happens first” has both humor and truth embedded in it. But at other times, her attempts at trying to make things funny just turn awkward and soggy.
Perhaps control over language is the factor that strictly stops this novel from being a smooth reading. First of all, the author is confused about where and how to use a comma. She hands them out abundantly, sometimes up to three unnecessary ones in a single sentence. Sample this: “A frisson of awareness crept into her mind, as though, someone was watching; Nandini immediately glanced around.” Otherwise, she simply avoids the comma, and also makes grammatical errors, as in “ ‘Sure do tell?’ she prompted.” The author also has a strange aversion for the article ‘a’, which she omits at several places. In her mind, and in the book, statute becomes ‘statue’ while publicly transforms to ‘publically’. And she repeatedly uses the word ‘filmy’ to talk of movies, which reminds us of a transparent layer instead. Not good, this.
At the end, this shoe is made only for those who can get their feet in and have a real snug fit. For all others, it is the wrong shoe altogether.
Novel : Right Fit Wrong Shoe
Author : Varsha Dixit
Pages : 227
Price : Rs 135
Publisher : Rupa
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