Amit Chaudhuri can be named as revolutionary writer. He dresses very conservatively; his hesitant delivery is of one who weighs each word carefully before committing it to speech. He uses his language very cautiously. His four novels, A Strange and Sublime Address, Afternoon Raag, Freedom Song, and A New World, are slim and sensitive. The author from the core of his heart wanted to become a poet. Yet it is fiction that has made his name.
But there is another aspect to the man revealed in his latest two works both of them are non-fiction. The first, a work of literary criticism, which reveals him to be a fiercely intelligent and non-conformist critic; the other a collection of political essays, where he comes across as passionate, committed, and outspoken.
Synopsis:
Set in the backdrop of early 90`s `Freedom Song` describes the life history of two interrelated middle-class Calcutta families. The central characters of the story Khuku and Mini usually spend their time talking about family, friends, health, and occasionally, Muslims and the Babri Masjid too. `Freedom Song` is totally about the two person`s perspective about the Hindu and Muslims. The story starts with the loud music of Muslim Prayer i.e. Azaan. They are totally disgusted and feel that the country is looking like a Muslim country. They discuss about the fact that in earlier days many temples were demolished so this is not a big deal done by Hindu nationalist party BJP. Khuku decides to vote for BJP as she supports the action of the party. Despite these contentious remarks, `Freedom Song,` like the other two novellas, is a great creation of the author. Rendered in evocative prose, Chaudhuri`s carefully observed writing remains at the surface, confining itself to the thin segment of the upper-middle class. In the earlier novellas, the childlike and adolescent points of view make the surface observations easier to accept.
This `Freedom Song` by Amit Chaudhuri is published by the Vintage where the author uses a beautiful, vibrant and complex fabric of language in rendering his characters and their lives.
