The Honest Season – Kota Neelima

Review by: Tapan Mozumdar

I finished reading ‘The Honest Season’ by Kota Neelima in about 7 hours spread over 3 days. The book has 24 chapters, a prologue, and an epilogue. Considering the volume, this is probably one of the very few books in the recent decade I was compelled to finish in one go. Other writers spinning such web for me are Amitava Ghosh and Dan Brown. The magnetism of the story telling by Ms.Neelima, the characters, and the events don’t allow you to rest your mind. You are just mesmerised by the story as you read them all, including the sub-texts in smaller, italic fonts. ‘Unputdownable’ – in one clichéd word.

A surreal, idealist universe has been spun by the protagonists Mira, the journalist who ‘knows’ and Sikandar, the politician who wants the world to ‘know.' Nalan, another politician, who don’t want people to ‘know’, is in the wings until the last page; as if he can’t decide whether he is an antagonist or not. Mira’s extremely moral worldview seems too good for her own safety. Sometimes, the reader may feel the urge to slap Mira out of her dangerous dalliance with the God of the end. The two principal characters do feel this urge frequently.

Mira is perhaps the character who is the writer’s conduit in and out of the story. She represents the voice of the writer, and I would have expected the author to liberate the character more to have her own mind. Accepting the fact that Mira is uniquely gifted, she could have spoken in the story less ideally. Her dialogues seem immensely crafted and so is the case with the two other principle alpha males as well. The writer overshadows its characters and speaks for them at length in a language that they are usually not expected to speak. But then the story has a surreal and mystic layer to fog out such arguments. Krishna did say to Arjun much melodramatic dialogues for a battlefield, so do the Consciences in this story.

The three principal characters can exist in our Universe of realpolitik. The writer knows that and spins an elaborate prologue and introductions to prod us into suspending the disbelief. We have to accept the premises of the story, that of ‘know’ journalists. Why these journalists do not ‘know’ the value of the next stock in the market to become ‘hot’ or the weather unpredictability to bet high on the seasons is anyone’s guess. It is accepted that the special powers are all used for the general good of the society. I would have personally loved to see the temptations of gray in the key knowers and actually, a character moving into the Dark Side with this gift. Conflicts would have been interesting. Any case, having reporters with such abilities will bring in legal liabilities on the newspaper, which I guess has been silently taken care by the editor and the owner. We are neither warned about it nor exposed to the vulnerability of such knowledge.

The reason why Sikandar chose Mira was frugal and elementary. I was not convinced and may dare to call that a major plot hole. Mira is a very concealed person to the world and despite this, without any acquaintance, Sikandar likes her to the point of death. This is fantasy stuff!

In the beginning, Kirti reveals the conflict between Nalan and Sikandar over a Lok Sabha seat, but he just disappears never to come back in the story. When he was there, he seemed to be too important a character to be thrown into oblivion, whereas sidekicks like Lina and Dubey hover around without much value add. The romantic attraction between Salat and Lina dies an early death with no actual reason for the same. Did Salat secretly desire Mira? I was actually expecting him to appear at the end of the story.

Other characters like Nuri, Bharat, the Power Broker, the Editor, etc. are too real in the contemporary world and can be easily identified, endangering legal implications on the writer.

Maybe the play among the Hyperreal and Surreal characters establishes the narration and render it so absorbing. The portal to the high power corridors of the temple of democracies is opened for the reader, and he is transported inside, appalled and enchanted simultaneously by this uncharted territory for the common man. The reporting experience of the writer has made such sojourn enjoyable for the readers.

I shall recommend this book for an involved one time read. It’s not Sherlock Holmes, neither it can be called inspirational literature for keeps. But until the time you are there, you have a whale of a time. Like in the middle of a carnival. Or a hunt, with the assigned gun by the writer in your hand.

Book Details:

The Honest Season

Author: Kota Neelima

Published in: January 2016

Pages: 364