Book Review: Nameless Malayalam Cinematic Thriller by a Debutant Author

 

(I am masking the name of the book and the author as I don’t want to hurt the sentiments of any)

The other day, I had the misfortune of reading this so-called thriller by a debutant author. The plot is somewhat like this- random men across the state are being targeted by a mysterious lady who seems to be someone settled abroad. The lady has got a strange modus operandi – she fakes love and, in the pretext of having a rendezvous, gets these men to board a car and reach her place of stay. The bodies start piling up pretty soon, and the investigation team is on the run to find the Killer.

With a pretty generic plot setting up the tone for this supposedly cinematic mystery thriller, the least you expect are a couple of exciting twists and turns which can hook you onto the proceedings. But writing with absolutely zero conviction and subpar narrative coherence, this one turns out to be one epic mess and ends up a complete waste of your time and money.

Now, picture this. This one is a mystery thriller, and the principal investigating officer mouths this gem of dialogue towards the last page of this novel (when he is asked by another character how he managed to catch the Killer)-

“ഇതൊക്കെ എങ്ങനെ കണ്ടെത്തി ______? (how did you manage to capture the Killer?)

“അതൊന്നും എനിക്കും അറിയില്ല സർ . എങ്ങനെയോ കണ്ടെത്തി എന്ന് വേണം പറയാൻ !” (I don’t know sir, I found out somehow!)

The characters in this wannabe thriller are equally dumb and outright stupid. The supposedly evil men are so dumb that they are even willing to get into the car and proceed to some unknown destination on the persuasion of some random males with the sole hope of hooking up with their secret lover! The lesser said about the basic plot, the better it is. The entire revelation and the backstory preceding it would have made for a blockbuster had it come out a good 50 years back!

At 112 pages, this one is an epic misfire! Replete with grammatical, typesetting, formatting, and punctuation errors and giving scant regard to the time and money  spent by the average reader, books like this serve no one. And, I honestly don’t believe we are doing a favor to the language or the habit of reading in general by encouraging efforts like this!

Pathetic, to say the least!

-nikhimenon