The 5 star rating is
on the following criteria:
Story/Concept/Plot *
Characterisation *
Language/Expression *
Entertainment/Message *
Publishing (job done or not) *
Heart of Bullets is a
story of two fearless soldiers, who would do anything for Love; Love for their
Motherland, for a friend or love for a woman.
The story runs in
past and present where the narrator, one of the soldiers, tells the story of
his daredevil friend Sameer. Sameer as a friend, as a lover and as a brave
soldier.
As both the boys have indispensable part in each other’s life we get to see narrator’s
life as well.
The lady in the story
has pivotal role, as her actions, dreams, innocence, ignorance, foolhardiness,
answerability takes the story forward.
The story has many
highs and lows, in terms of events, which are overall an interesting sequence, but nothing new.
A sense of mystery is tried to be maintained, revealed in the final chapters of
the novel, which are also the saving grace of this work and make for
interesting reading in an otherwise laborious read.
You get a hang of the
characters but they could have been more refined.
The ‘present’ part of
the story when the characters are on a mission at LOC are dealt better than the
flashback, their school lives.
We tend to paint our
own imaginary pictures of things which we cannot experience first-hand. A tale
has been woven of the days and ways; emotions and actions at LOC.
The
terrorist/soldiers escapades, emotional upheaval, missions accomplished,
exchange of words, appear to be more inspired from the Hindi film industry than
reality. The execution could have done with some new thrills.
Not only the war
scenes, but some important sequence in the boys’ juvenile phase, one liners,
appear too-close-for-comfort to some Bollywood movies.
In order to pack a
punch, the conversation among the teenagers have been dealt with in a
round-about-way and as an observer I felt like the third wheel reading them.
Being an intruder, I was unable to laugh and cry with the characters.
Poems and
philosophical one liners are recurring feature in the book. Some of the poems
are well worded and rhymed, but in places they become tad excessive.
They and their explanation offered by the writer, using the same words,
somewhere undermines the reader also challenges one’s patience.
The novel needs,
extensive grammar corrections (Sad to see over 70% sentences in the book were
grammatically wrong or absurd/inappropriate words were used.); editing and
proofreading is at its worst. There are various technical and factual errors with time period,
communication methods, and few other things. (I am not mentioning them here
because it will spoil the surprise element in the book.)
The book has
potential because the plot is well thought out, but journey in a rickety
vehicle and unpleasant terrain can easily be not ventured into.
On the above mentioned criteria
I rate it **
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