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Book Review
TAMIL
Retro-classic novel
PREMA NANDAKUMAR
MISS RADHA: Kothamangalam Subbu; Vikatan Prachuram, 757, Anna Salai, Chennai-600002. Rs. 99.
ANANDA VIKATAN is in a resurrection mode. A welcome enterprise since for long the weekly has been the generator of several classics. Kothamangalam Subbu achieved immortality as a director with “Auvvaiyar” and as a novelist with “Tillana Mohanambal”. And though all that he penned may not have risen to the level of his epic novel on the dancer-Nagaswara vidwan duo, the breeziness in his telling will always have a faithful following. “Miss Radha” is one.
Life in a hostel for girl students gives a puckish opening to the novel. Subbu is able to personify social truths as Radha or Sita or Uma, Devaki or Chandrika or Ammakannu. A novel that speeds forward smoothly like a Volvo or Lexus in the hands of Tony Stewart or Michael Schumacher, Miss Radha lets us digest the “fillum masala” without batting an eyelid. You never know when Subbu will make you scream. It could be how a “thenkuzhal” is the end-product of the brains of a variety of engineers working at tandem; or the chemistry of cookery. Subbu invades the sacred with jollity so we have a Kungkumapoo Samiyar too. The Tilakavati-Tirunavukkarasar legend is handled with a tranquil nicety and all is well that ends well.
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