Tuesday 18 February 2014

Nazaqat - Book Review

Book Review

Novel: Nazaqat (Fiction)
Genre: Thriller/Drama
Author: Sasha H Singhal aka Harsh Agarwal

Nazaqat... the title being the taken name of the protagonist in the story goes well to title it. The cover page of the book ie the classic wallpaper back-print and the shadow if the crystal chandelier, the shades and the royal chair on the back cover set a perfect mood to explore the insight of 'Nazaqat'. The only thing that curbs the imagination of the reader even before knowing what and who Nazaqat is, is the picture of the girl on the cover. Instead, just a shadowy image of a lady would have done justice.

Nazaqat is a story of a woman with the morals of a man. Nazaqat is the taken name of Naazani, a girl from Dehradun. It is the story of her journey which began out of a silly teen curiosity and took her to a new world alltogether. Here, in this new world with new people and wage adventures she lived with her bewildering morals and mysterious terms and conditions. This is a story of a girl who gets into the business of Prostitution by choice. She loves her job and does it wholeheartedly. With Nazani, it is also a story of people and acts attached to her. People like, Ishank who is a gay character, Biplab who is an innocent lover boy, Priyanka who is Nazani's room mate at delhi, Sharat who is Nazani's manager. Acts like the 'Slut walk' and the wave of legalizing prostitution in India. It is also a story of Mathews, a ghost writer for Nazani's story.


Nazani, the character is beautifully portrayed by the author in regards to her looks, personality, behavior and nature. The dual name representation for the character i.e. Nazaqat for the prostitute and Nazani for the girl from Dehradun worked great until it was confused with an unnecessary addition of her pet name Naez. The story of the main character is so attention seeking that the brief descriptions on places and other elements in the story acts as a hurdle in the flow of the plot. The metaphors used over all the script are beautifully expressed. The mermaid poetry in the beginning of every chapter goes well in sink with the plot. But, the only problem with that idea was the poems being in 'old english' which not many readers are familiar with. The mind set of the people in the story is presented simply wonderfully in the form of a 'Quote' to remember. The story clearly represents the society's ideal actions and their underlying intentions that have never matched. Some bitter truths o our society are revealed here.

Nazzqat, "A slut is just a women with morals of a man."

Sharat, "It teaches you how to reach your goal by making use of the given resources... That is, Angry Birds."

Great dialogue writing. the writing style of the author is very floral, descriptive and decorative.

 Every last word from the chapters keeps you tied with the story to read on...

Great read!!!!!!

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