Till the last
breath by Durjoy Datta tells the story of life from the window of awaiting
death round the corner scenario using four central characters and chapters
swinging around their lives in separate and mixed narratives. The book its own
set of highs and lows just like the life of people it talks of.
From
everything that Durjoy has offered in the past, TTLB is the kind of story you
would least expect from him. Unlike his immensely successful Deb and Avantika
trilogy, TTLB’s central theme is not revolving around relationships, lust,
infatuation and modern day college couple’s lives, instead it talks of
something much more serious than that – terminal illness and change of life as
a consequence of it.
Most of the
book is set around the events and turbulence of thoughts experienced in room
509 of GKL hospital where two patients Dushyant Roy and Pihu Malhotra finds
themselves facing death. The doctors operating them – Armaan Kashyap and Zarah
Mirza are both young, charming and successful in their different ways but as
they work on case of Pihu and Dushyant, they find each other facing their
respective past demons and get their own lives permanently altered in the
process.
I will talk
about separate characters and book as a whole in the course of this review
further. Dushyant roy is a spoiled young muscular boy, he is an addict and has
self destroyed himself while taking substance abuse as a support after things
have gone wrong in the course of his life. His jaded girlfriend Kajal Khurana
and his past visions of a dysfunctional college life romance with and around
her is used to show a picture of why Dushyant is where he is. Their story is
written in easy college narrative, using typical Durjoy phrases and slangs of
campus life. Insights of Dushyant become predictable and irritatingly repetitive
at many instances as there are many drag portions featuring his life and Kajal’s
post their separation. Durjoy is less innovative and offers no new substance
using their college era narrative in major part of the book and sometime the
sudden change of emotions experienced by both of them, donot appear believable.
They are too radical and fluctuating if you ask me.
Zarah Mirza,
working under Armaan treats Dushyant. There are descriptions about her skin and
appearance at various instances and she appears to be cut across as the most
visually delightful person in the book. In the first half there are unanswered
questions around her immense hatred for men, but those are answered in some
predictable ways. Even her sudden too much liking for Dushyant and her possessiveness
for him when Kajal re-enters Dushyant’s life is not written in much detailed
way. Someone who was brutalized by drunk men cannot solely have a soft change
of heart for another drunkard on mere possibility of his painful association
with a jaded lover. The entire concept of their liking for each other is too
shallow and could have been rewritten in much better ways.
Pihu Malhotra
is a medical student. She is too good to face the painful and merciless disease
that she gets at a ridiculously young age. She is a bright light in the
otherwise dark setting of the first half of book (The second half has everyone bright,
who was grey or even pitch dark in the first one – weird!!)
Pihu is my
favorite character in the book, irrespective of how cliché her flirting text
with operating Doctor Armaan appears to be, there is a heart to it in the right
place. She is cute, funny, optimistic and stands for the courageous aspect of
facing death in the book. The description of her ways of winking like a child,
flirting like an amateur, desire to experience love once before death is all
written in simple yet beautiful way. She is a charmer and with her letter at
the end of the book, would find place in a soft corner of your heart – much
after the book gets over.
Armaan
Kashyap is half well cooked and half stale. I could not help but notice how he
borrows his first name from a lead character of a hit hindi soap “Dil Mil Gaye”(Armaan
Malik, I guess was the name of the doctor there) and how his initial behavior
of rudeness and physical build reminds of of Dr. Rahul Mehra in first episodes of Sanjivni on star
plus, when in 2004 – Gaurav Chanana used to play his character.
Armaan Kashyap is brilliant and successful, as quoted again
and again but he shows too much fluctuation in both his acts as a doctor and a
coworker with respects of his scenes with Pihu and Zarah. He is boringly rude
and predictably funny and charming in other parts.
One of the key problems of the book is repetition of texts and phrases as well as lack of
originality in the inner plots, while a heartwarming ambition on the over all
message – much of which is delivered only by one of the four major characters. In
the middle somewhere you get sick of repetitive introductions while writer
switches between life of these four and again and again tells us the same
things about them in the initial lines of each chapter named over them. The
concept is crisp and has been followed by master storytellers of commercial fiction
like Sidney Sheldon but Durjoy though ambitious, fails to leave much impact in
the style he chose because of the maximized things he tries to express using
minimal internal visions and subplots. Apart
from Pihu, all other characters have
somewhat friction stricken relationship with their parents and considerable
time has been time to how grateful life can be if your parents love you,
something that starkly shapes why Pihu is different from Armaan, Dushyant, and
Zarah – and has lesser mood swings and aggressive impulses. For a writer whose
mass following is in 18-23 aged readers of young college going crowd is huge,
that is an appreciable point to touch in the story which continuously remains
close to subject of satisfactory and unsatisfactory diversion of death.
I would give
a 3 on 5 to Till The Last Breath by Durjoy Datta - 2 and a half of this is for Pihu Malhotra and
her explanations of life and death and half of which is for Durjoy for
attempting a change in theme. I expect
better things to come from the popular author in days to follow. He is a young
publisher of himself and can experience or experiment change in betting upon
him again on a different pitch of a story in future again.
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