Book: Ram C/o Anandhi

Author: Akhil P. Dharmajan (Translator: Haritha C.K.)

Genre: Fiction

Format: eBook and Paperback

Publisher: Harper Fiction India

Pages: 352

My Rating: 4.7/5 *

Buy the book here.

Imagine you enter a cinema hall with an expectation to watch a romantic movie, and when you leave the theatre hall, your heart is filled with oozing emotions. You wished for a love story to be told in the movie, but instead, you watched a collage of ‘stories’ unfold in front of you. A story of five people, a story of different shades of relationships, and a story of a city. You become more aware of the story called ‘life’!

This is the exact scenario when you finish reading this novel, Ram C/o Anandhi by Akhil P. Dharmajan. As the author claimed in the book blurb that this novel is ‘unputdownable’, it is!

Let’s have a cinematic review of the book Ram C/o Anandhi. Here we begin!

What not to expect from the novel Ram C/o Anandhi:

Are you wishing for a romance novel with a story offering you moments of cheesy romance, or cliché romantic moments between the protagonists? A simple and sweet love story by depicting various aspects of love? Then Ram C/o Anandhi is not the book you want to read at this moment. Because this book talks beyond a love story.

What to expect from Ram C/o Anandhi:

If you wish to read a book that tells the story of a city through the lens of a boy, exploring different themes to present a realistic view of the city through the lives of its people, then this book is for you.

I guess your answer is yes, so let’s proceed to further discussion.

Themes explored in Ram C/o Anandhi:

This book doesn’t only stand on the theme of ‘love’, but also explores other themes like friendship, affection, siblinghood between step-siblings, loss, memories, everyday struggles, the rivalry between villages, corruption, lives of aruvanis, weird behaviors and psychological illness, familial bonds, and some more interesting themes that unfold in the later chapters. To keep the suspense brewing, I prefer not to reveal them in my review.

The Story(line):

The novel begins when Sriram Aravind aka Ram arrives in Chennai to pursue his dream of filmmaking. He takes shelter in the house of a boy named Bineesh where he meets Kiran – the third person living in the flat. Thus, he starts his life in Chennai sharing his place with Bineesh and Kiran. As he joins the college, he befriends Vetri and Reshma who are siblings. Soon, it is revealed that they are step-siblings, yet they share a strong bond of affection. Then, Ram meets Paatti, the landlady of the house where Vetri and Reshma live. Meanwhile, Ram comes across the weird receptionist of their college, Anandhi, who is seen busy making money by doing any sort of work. Soon it is revealed that Anandhi is the third paying guest in Paatti’s house. As Ram’s life in Chennai proceeds, we see the story taking shelter in many sub-plots, and Ram gets to know each of these four characters as well as their secrets.

However, in the book cover, only five characters are portrayed whereas I strongly wished to see one more person there – the character that made Ram C/o Anandhi an unforgettable read for me. It’s Malli, the aruvani at the Guindy station. I craved her presence in the book cover as much as wished to have a separate novel by the same author centered around the characters like Malli, whose stories make the cityscape come alive to the readers.

My thoughts on the book:

I finished reading the book in two days. It’s hard to believe that I finished a 300-page long novel in just two days! This is the fastest book that I finished reading within two days of its arrival to me. I was wide awake at the late-night hour after a decade. I kept reading the book and turning pages as the storyline got more intense in the later chapters.

On this note, translator Haritha C.K. deserves applause for her wonderful work of translating the Malayalam novel into its English edition. The translation is smooth and simple, thus enriching the reading experience.

The X-Factor:

Being a fan of South Indian films, I had the added advantage of imagining the vividly described scenes in this book, and that’s why, reading Ram C/o Anandhi felt like watching a movie, more than reading a novel. It’s written in simple language, by delivering a visual storytelling style where you can see the characters and their actions in front of you. The short chapters and the presentation style made this novel a fast-paced book.

Can you imagine a book that doesn’t fall under mystery, suspense, or thriller yet grabs attention to turn pages and keep the reader hooked to know which new secret of the city and the characters is going to be revealed next?

Here is the X-factor of this novel.

What I liked about the book:

Unlike the typical romance novels, Ram C/o Anandhi portrays a vivid landscape of the city with its lively characters. Vetri and Reshma bring us a rare kind of relationship where they behave more like friends than siblings. Vetri is proved inexperienced when it comes to choosing his girlfriends, and these girls reveal a darker side of the city as well. Paatti, the affectionate and friendly landlady, seems like a blessing to these four young boys and girls as they became her support and strength in her lonely life. Anandhi, the seemingly ordinary, career-oriented, ambitious, and mature girl gradually reveals herself to be an exceptional woman who is admired for her fighting spirit and kindness. The author has excelled in jotting down the mystery around the character of Anandhi while slowly unfolding her human side and bringing the woman in her to the readers. However, the main surprise awaits in the last few chapters when the readers get to know the truths about Anandhi. I read the last four chapters thrice to understand the words written between the lines.

Just like a thriller movie, this novel strikes the magnum opus moment at the last scene aka the last line, and that’s why, with the twist revealed in the very last line of the novel, your mind gets puzzled as everything that seemed an easy-going story, turned to an unforgettable novel.

A quote to remember:

“As long as a girl is like a flower, there will be those who seek to destroy her. But when she becomes a burning ember, no one will dare to touch her. From now on, you are not a flower – you are a burning ember.”

My takeaway from Ram C/o Anandhi:

Apart from learning some Tamil words and being introduced to the cityscape of Chennai through the ordinary yet extraordinary characters and the themes of the novel, reading Ram C/o Anandhi became an unforgettable experience for me because of the character of Malli.

I enjoyed reading about the sweet friendship between Ram and Malli, how they befriended, how Malli’s life story contributed to Ram’s transformation, how beautifully the author has portrayed Malli’s innocence, Ram’s affection, and most importantly, the struggles of people like Malli who fight against their destiny for the sake of survival, identity, and shelter. For me, Malli’s story is the best part of the novel.

A room for improvement:

The only thing that lacked my appreciation was the book cover. Though I liked the design very much; it vividly shows the five central characters of the story and depicts the themes of the story through its secondary elements, I couldn’t give it five stars for two reasons:

1. As I said before, I felt the book cover lacked the presence of the sixth character – Malli who was an integral part of Ram’s Chennai days.
2. The book keeps readers hooked by portraying different shades of Anandhi’s character. Throughout the novel, from the first scene where Anandhi is introduced to the readers, till the end, the author delicately portrays Anandhi’s character by sharing slices of mystery, thus making the reader intrigued to know more about her life and identity. That’s why, I didn’t like the book cover splitting her name into two lines. I think it would have been better if her name was written in a single line, more to be read like ‘Anandhi’ than ‘Anan-dhi’.

However, if we can keep these two points away, I believe Harin Kairali Punnapra has done a good job by choosing attractive colors and illustrations in the book cover that give the readers a hint of the storyline.

My recommendation:

If you are looking for a light-read where you will get to know about the city through different layers of truths and enjoy the stories of the ordinary people living there, then Ram C/o Anandhi is for you. If you are looking for a sweet and simple story where different themes bring you the story of ‘life’ through an apparently ‘love’ story, then Ram C/o Anandhi is definitely for you!

Ram C/o Anandhi is a novel based on Chennai and its people. If you wish to read a book that tells the extraordinary story of ordinary people of Chennai, by exploring different themes with a realistic approach, then Ram C/o Anandhi is your next read.

( This review is powered by Blogchatter Book Review Program.

I received the review copy for an honest and unbiased review. All opinions are my own.)

(This post is part of the Bookish League blog hop hosted by Bohemian Bibliophile.)