Malarnthum Malaramal...

Author: Muthulakshmi Ragahvan

Genre: Romance

The story begins with the marriage of Brintha and Suthaharan in a village. Through a series of flash backs the we learn that the groom only agreed to the marriage because of his sister, Karthiga, who is Brintha’s best friend. Karthiga’s marriage was fixed, but the groom had died of heart attack on the day of the marriage, resulting is the public labelling Karthiga as “raasiyillathaval”. Hurt and humiliated Karthiga decides to stay in her room and cut herself from the outside world. As the family is miserable thinking about her fate, her friend, Brintha tells her that she is in love with Karthiga’s brother. Grooms side agrees to the marriage as Karthiga requests it, however there is a lot of opposition from the bride’s side. Mainly as they are wealthier and they were admist of fixing Brintha’s maariage with an American groom, also part of the hesitancy is due to the fact that Karthiga, who states that she will not marry anyone will be in same household, and they are worried about how this would affect Brintha’s life. As Brintha is very persistent in marrying Suthaharan, they eventually cave in and the marriage takes place. On their first night and the day after Brintha irritates Suthaharan by talking about the American groom, to a point where he slaps her. Her Behaviour towards him and towards others are completely different as she puts on face that she loves him in front of others and otherwise when no one is around.  The rest of the story revolves around the reasoning behind Brintha’s abnormal behaviour.

I must say I really enjoyed this story. It was good and it was a good combination of love, family sentiments, humour and to some degree suspense.  Although you have to sceptical of the practicality of the chain f events, this was a good novel. I especially liked Brintha’s brother and their fear for their brother-in-law as well as her sister-in-laws. It really emphasizes how the men of household may look tough on the outside but it is really the women that hold the fort together. Once again a really good story and I would love to hear your views about it.

TI

Nizhalodu Nizhalaha

Author: Muthulakshmi Raghavan

Genre: Romance

Our hero Pandiyan is part of a loving and affectionate family consists of his parents, elder brother, his wife and their little girl Pooja. Although his family is very wealthy and has many businesses in their village, Padiyan decides to Pursue IPS and becomes a respectable officer in charge of important missions. At home his father is searching for a bride for his son and his mother is trying to break each one of those talks as she wants Pandiyan to marry her brother’s daughter Roopa. Both Pandiyan and his father are not interested in Roopa as they don’t like her and her attitudes, moreover, Pandiyan is in search for a bride that truly touches his heart at first sight.

In Thanjavoor, Sarulatha is a soft spoken, kind girl who lives with her parents, brother and his wife Leela. Leela is jealous of Saru’e beauty and wants to get her married to her drunken mother so she can ruin her life. Saru’s parents and brother knowing Leela’s brother’s attitude are opposed to the marriage and looks for other alliances. As fate would have it Pandiyan and Saru’s horoscopes match and they come to see Saru and talk about marriage. As Leela knows Pandiyan’s family status, she knows that Saru would get a better life then hers and tries to stop the marriage. Helping her is Pandiyan’s mother who also wants to stop this marriage at all costs. Despite the two women plotting against this, Saru manages to ignite something in Pandiyan’s heart and he falls head over heels for her. As their marriage becomes fixed they talk to each other on the phone daily and really begin to feel for one another. On the marriage day the story takes an unexpected twist and they are forced apart. The remainder of the story revolves around how this couple reunite.

Altogether it is good story, and I really like the portrayal of some of the characters including Pandiyan. However I have to say I was not fond of Saru’s character. More often I felt sorry for her and I really thought she should stand up for herself (even though she does, I didn’t think it was enough). The antagonist characters in this book, reminds me of real life characters that we can all find in our lives, but too bad they don’t turn good all of a sudden as in fiction ;) Pandiyan’s friend Kamesh, and Saru’s friend Anjali are both assets to this story. Overall it is a good read if you can accept a heroine who is like an angel’s reincarnation (forgives everything, doesn’t keep grudge, doesn’t fight).

Hope to be back with the next summary soon.

TI

Nee Enthan Vennilavu....

Author: Muthulakshmi Raghavan

Genre: Romance

 Happy new year to you all! I have been away from this blog for long.... really sorry to disappoint the regular visitors.  From now on I will try my very best to give 1 summary a week!

This was a beautiful story highlighting the importance of love and family relationship! Once again I am beginning to enjoy MR’s writing more than the other writers out there. Her writing style is very captivating, and the sequence of events seem more realistic then typical RC, UB, JS, KJ books.

Getting back to the story, our lady Aishwarya is part of a beautiful family consisting of her parents, Periyappa, Periyamma, their son Guna, and her grandmother. They are the ‘big’ family in their village, the family is very close with the exception of her brother Guna. When she was very small she had almost drowned in the well and was saved by ‘someone’. Her periyappa and father threaten the family of the ‘someone’ as both families don’t get along. A couple of years later when she is swimming in the river with her friends she once again drowns and is once again saved by ‘someone’. Her brother finds out about this and her family warns her and she is sent to Chennai for college, mainly because they don’t want any more encounter with Aishwarya and that ‘someone’ as they fear it may develop into ‘something’. Although she is aware of her families’ feelings toward ‘him’, she begins to feel something for  the ‘one’ who saved her life and that feeling is further ignited by her family trying to keep her away from him. Even though she is sent away for studies she still spots him whenever she comes back to her village for holidays, weddings and festivals. Aishwarya is caught between her feeling toward ‘someone’ who’s name she doesn’t even know and her strong love towards her family.

It is a beautiful story, I simply loved how the love develops through just looking at each other without saying a single word. I really liked how the story was written and the flow, it really kept me reading the book without putting it down.

Share your thoughts on this novel if you had a chance to read it yet...

I would really appreciate it if you can provide your own insights for the summaries that I publish. 

TI

My first MS novel: Unnodu Oru Naal

Author: Muthulakshmi Raghavan

Genre: Romance

Summary:

Our hero, Hariharan, is from a very wealthy family, he runs his own successful business both is India as well abroad. His parents fix marriage for him with a modern girl (Theeba) from a family of equal status. Hariharan is fond of the Indian culture and does not like Theeba's love for the western culture, so he tells his father to stop the wedding, but the father goes ahead with the engagement even in the absence of the groom. Upset by his father’s action our hero decides to visit his friend in the country side for some peace of mind for a few days and leaves without telling his father.

Sowmiya, is born into a very orthodox family in a village and is loved by her parents and two elder brothers. She is completing her final year and is home for the study break. The wives of her two brothers, who are jealous of her beauty and pampering, try to arrange marriage with Sowmi and their respective cousin brothers, who are up to no good. A competition arises of who she will marry when both cousin brothers are invited for lunch at Sowmiya’s house on the same day without the permission of her parents, before things get out of control Sowmiya’s ‘murrai maaman’ Paraman, shows up and states that as long as he is alive no one else is to marry Sowmi. He also states that IF he is to give up Sowmi to another groom then he must be more intelligent, wealthy and good hearted then he is! Upset that their plans were ruined by Paraman, both of Sowmi’s sister-in laws tell their cousin-brothers to kidnap Sowmi and marry her when she leaves for school the next day. Sowmi manages to escape from them and run into Hariharan.

 The rest of the of story is about the encounter between Hariharan and Sowmiya and how the one day that they spend together changes their lives.

My View: I thought this book was well written, I really liked the village slang that was used in this book, it also takes us into the intimacy and innocence of villagers, which I enjoyed most. It was well written; I thought it was more like Uma Balakumar’s books then Ramani Chandran’s.

Please let me know if anyone has read this book or recommend any other books by this Author.

Introduction

Hi,
I wanted somewhere where I can express my passion for reading, somewhere I can post a summary of all the books that I am currently reading as well as share my views on the current book, and this was born...
A short introduction about me, I am currently living in Toronto Canada, and I love reading, I read both Tamil and English novels, the Genre, that I enjoy are mystery and romance. My favorite Tamil authors are Ramani Chandran, Uma Balakumar, Chithra Bala, etc..
On this blog I will be posting summary of the books that I read and my views on it, this is going to be somewhere I can come back to when I want to re-read a book.
Hope you find it somewhat useful and feel free to share you thoughts.

Thamil Illakiya (TI)