MISTRESS / ANITA NAIR

'Mistress' is one of the most beautiful books I have recently come across. The manner in which two stories unfold in the novel, show the masterful narrative technique of the novelist. The whole novel revolves around the four main characters. Radha and her husband Shyam, her lover, Chris, and her Uncle, Koman. The amount of intensive study that must have gone into the making of this novel is commendable. Within a perfect framework of the nine emotions that a heart can feel, the novel is divided into three books, each consisting of three emotions. Illuminating explanations from life, nature and dance go with the nine emotions - love, contempt, sorrow, fury, valour, fear, disgust, wonder and attachmentThe story then is entangled in between these emotions and it is an interesting study of how the kathakali dancer hides himself within a mask, and becomes a different personality altogether. Equally engaging is the lexicon of kathakali dance that we come across scattered throughout the novel. With his knowledge of kathakali, a dance form which is entirely based on the epics, Koman looks upon mankind with a wisdom drawn from the heroes, princes and villains of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. He recognizes every nuance of emotion as one he has experienced, as part of a vesham, or a role in kathakali.

The first is the story of Radha and Shyam, and travel writer, Chris, who comes to their riverside resort in Kerala, with a cello and a tape recorder, to maat Radha's Uncle, Koman, a famous kathakali dancer. While Koman and Radha both feel themselves compulsively drawn by the personality of Chris, Shyam becomes a helpless observer as Radha embraces Chris in a passion he cannot comprehend.Koman is both an observer and participant in this story, making no judgments, except those he reveals to the readers.

 The second story is that which Koman tells Radha and Chris, the story of his own convoluted past and his parents, a fascinating account by all standards. The tale takes us all over Kerala and Tamil Nadu, to the unique town of Arabipatnam, and to various other places. And it brings us to kathakali, with fascinating insights into the training and performance of this traditional dance form, which is drama as well as dance. The book is in the first person, but does not have a single narrator; as in a dance-drama, each of the players is allowed to speak for himself. Shyam voices his thoughts, and Radha voices hers, and we see them hurting each other, the misunderstandings deepening through the trickery of words. As Nair goes further into their past, we begin to understand the complexities of their relationship, to comprehend the injustice of it all.
A not-to-miss book as it is, I recommend it if you have taste for some serious thought to go with a smooth running fiction. You will enjoy the long descriptions, the passages that go to bring out the inner turmoil of different characters, and the layer-by-layer unfolding of the story, woven with complete mastery in words.

"Art is a tough mistress. Exacting. Unforgiving. But beautiful and tantalising, all the same. When applied to best-selling author Anita Nair's latest novel Mistress. these truths prove double-edged, yet true as steel..... those who have read it will mull over issues inherent between its covers. Set in Kerala, spanning 90 years, Nair's third novel explores the depths of relationships while, in a parallel strand, it unravels the skeins that weave together a life in art.... As the turbulent eddies of life surround the protagonists, we are plunged into a multi-pronged narrative ? where the navarasas dictate the mood of each segment, where the main characters offer first-person slants on the evolving plot,? where myths are vigorously retold with local colour, where the artist and his art tussle for an equitable balance.?It is a formula that seems bound for literary magic. To me, Nair's narrative powers and mastery of minutiae remain her forte... this novel proves she is conscious of the trivialisation of art, a mistress who accepts no compromises. "(The Hindu)

Happy Reading:)