Author
Tanuja Shankar Khan
Publisher
Prabhat Prakashan
Date
January 1, 2014
Final Verdict
2.5/5

About the Author

Born on 13th May 1968, Tanuja Shankar Khan, was brought up in Patna, where she stayed till 1996 with her family. Masters in English Literature from Patna University and Diploma Holder in Mass Communication, Tanuja was brought up in a very academic and artistic environment, where she along with her three more, bright siblings was given all opportunities to participate in various forms of performing arts and media like Theater, Music, Drama, Radio, Writing and Television by her erudite parents. Starting her career in media education by teaching at the prestigious Patna Women’s College till 1996, she entered television and created content for various TV channels and production houses creating lifestyle programming, and documentaries. Her feature-length film is also ready for release. At present, she is working as Channel Advisor, at Doordarshan National, New Delhi. ‘Flames of Paradise’ is her first novel, after being into writing short stories and scripts for the last 20 years.

Flames of Paradise

When I heard of Flames of Paradise written by Tanjua Shankar Khan, a story with a female protagonist set amidst the terrorism in Kashmir I jumped at the offer to review the book.  

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PLOT: The novel has an interesting plot which revolves around the story of Snigdha, a professional cinematographer, who gets a project which is based on the militancy of Kashmir. There she is captured by the terrorists who want to use her as leverage to get one of theirs freed.  The novel is about Roshan who is a militant and Snigdha feels a strange attraction towards him. When she escapes Snigdha finds herself in the company of Roshan, her ordeal and conflicting emotions toward the man are the centre of the story. ‘Flames of Paradise’ is the story of their romance set in the turbulent terrorist-infested Kashmir.

CHARACTERS: Snigdha, is a strong independent woman who knows exactly what she wants. Dimple and Nitin, are her friends who will support her every decision.  Roshan is the mysterious man to whom Snigdha is attracted. All the characters are strong and have the potential to be memorable, but they haven’t been explored to their depths. I wish I could spend more time with the characters and get to know them better.

WHAT I LIKED: The story is nice with tremendous potential. Though a love story set in Kashmir is not a novel idea, the approach toward the story is. The story is a winner. The cover with its picturesque photos is another plus point.

WHAT I DID NOT LIKE: The entire book seems rushed. Given more time for the plot to develop and the characters to interact would have taken the book to another level entirely. Also, the end is abrupt.

FINAL VERDICT: Having read the author for the first time, I had great expectations from the book, considering the topic covered and the characters used. What I find is a tad bit disappointing. I do look forward to reading more work from Tanuja Shankar Khan because this book shows a lot of promise.

The book has been given to me for review by Morsels and Juices. No payment was taken, and my opinions are honest and unbiased.

Jaibala Rao

Jaibala Rao

2 Responses

  1. Interesting review.. again, you have described exactly what I usually look for in a review in a concise manner.
    Thanks Jai.

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