Parineeta

I read the short novel Parineeta today. This Bengali novel by Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay is translated by Malobika Chaudhuri and it was published by Penguin to coincide with Pradeep Sarkar's film based on the novel (The cover of the book says that it was a film by Vidhu Vinod Chopra, who was actually the producer and co-writer of screenplay of the film).

Lolita is very young in the novel compared to the film - she is just thirteen when Shekhar "marries" her, and also Shekhar's father, Nabin Roy, is not given too much of a villainous image in the novel. There is no melodramatic climax either, which had spoiled the film. I felt that the novel has a kind of innocent charm which was missing in the film.

Parineeta is a readable novel, and we can finish reading it in an hour or two. But, I felt that there is nothing very memorable in it, except for a character study of the main character, Shekhar.