Book Review on Ritu Lalit’s HILAWI

HILAWI

By

RITU LALIT

Indian fantasy books indubitably carry an essence of the huge repository of mythology which we have in our country. However, the main problem is that most of them ultimately shape-up as a mere re-telling of those mythological legends with a tincture of twist here and there but nevertheless none of them offer a new take. And then, Ritu Lalit comes in with her first fantasy novel Hilawi and thankfully, brings some fresh air into the scene.

Hilawi has been churned out of our rich mythological history but Ritu delivers it in her own style which is at its best. A strong imagination is no doubt a must for being an author or a poet but for being a fantasy story-teller, one must have a fecund imagination for no fantasy can succeed without making the readers fly in the blue skies. And Ritu does it with the dexterity of a magician, absolutely effortlessly!

The novel revolves around the lives of a pair of twins, Yaduvir and Gargi Tamang who are suddenly jolted out of their mundane lives and are thrown right into the face of an adventure which they are utterly unprepared for. Imagine what would happen if you come to know that all the myths, fairytales, legends etc which you listened/read while growing up have become a part of your real life? Won’t you feel excited, scared, perplexed, and baffled all at the same time?

Well, that is exactly what the novel offers to you, a mysterious mix of emotions while you witness the twins take a plunge into an adventure which requires them to claim and protect a shield which is wanted and feared at once by their clansmen. This shield, Hilawi has been churned out from the heart of the ocean (quite like the samudra manthan in our mythological tales) and must be primed by the DNA of its guardian, which transpire to be the twins.

The novel is a strange mixture of ancient legends and myths and science and technology, all in the same cauldron. While flipping through the pages of the novel, one truly gets the feeling that one is flying on the wings of imagination from one incident to the next with the blinking of eyes.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆1/2

~Overview~

When the chants rise up, Gigi or Gargi Tamang finds that she has to gravitate to the strange object that they seem to emanate from a disc made of a metal that no one can identify. Could the myths that we've heard from time immemorial, actually be true? 

Yaduvir and Gargi Tamang, twins are nothing like each other; he, a mild-mannered and scholarly youth, and she, a feisty young woman, full of energy. A telephone call from India suddenly changes their lives. They find that they are the designated guardians and protectors of a strange shield that is both co-vetted and feared by their own clansmen. They are completely unprepared for the adventure they are rocked into, where no one around them seem to be who they are, where they are constantly on the sun and where they have been summoned for a task they cant even accept as true.