At first, you might think that Arjun Kumaramangalam, the protagonist of R. Chandramouli's debut novel North Star , is the hero of the book. But as you read further you realise that the real hero is Madras. Arjun is your guide through the sights and sounds of the city.
Plot
Arjun's father, a police officer, is burnt alive by protestors during the anti-Hindi riots of the 1960s. And life changes for Arjun, just 14. Two encounters haunt Arjun: Walking into his aunt's house, he is caught ogling at his cousin who is getting dressed. The second is when Arjun rescues a young girl from a hooligan at the popular Woody's.
These two events leave him so marked that he cannot form a relationship with a woman, even in the U.S. of A — where, like all good Tam-Brams, he goes off to make a living. Sexual tension marks his relationship with actor Rekha Sen and his neighbour Neelam but nothing really happens, given that he's still mooning over the girl from Woody's.
He works for an organisation that is fighting for women's rights and against various social evils that target women but believes that women are the weaker sex and need to be protected from men. And so 20 years later, he comes back to make peace with the ghosts that haunt him: his father's death; and the girl at Woody's.
While following the two trails, Arjun rescues more people; this time it's a busload of women who are in danger of being burnt alive. In true filmi style, Arjun beats up the bad guys and melts away. Later Inspector Kumaravel — who's helping him track the Woody's girl — tells him “An Army chap, we're trying to find out who he is, managed to beat the hell out of the hooligans.”
He tracks all the people involved in his father's death: the youth leader used as cat's paw, the police constable who was with his father on that day, the man who set his father on fire... to find the youth leader planted a sapling in his father's memory and is now a minister in the government; the constable is eaten up with guilt for not acting to save his superior and it's making him ill; and the worst punishment is reserved for the goon: his daughter is literally torn from his arms to be washed away in the Ganges. Divine retribution anyone?
When he tracks down the Woody's girl, it is to find that she married the guy he'd rescued her from. He was bad but reformed himself after marrying her. Now how many films have we seen in this irritating mould? I've lost count.
But does all this open Arjun's eyes? No, he's still obsessed with her; calls her his North Star who leads his way. She's so brave to live a normal life after her husband's death for her childrens' sake... Puhleeze!!
Confusing
The storyline moves back and forth in time, which is at times a tad confusing, especially as the narrative moves from third person to first person. As a protagonist, Arjun doesn't really win sympathy. You're itching to tell him to get on with his life and stop being childish. And finally when he decides to get back to India to succour to orphans, it seems a bit too much to swallow.
Probably the one character who seems true to life is Inspector Kumaravel, a typical world-weary, cynical cop who has a soft spot for Arjun because he's a cop's son and for the tragic way his father died.
But that redeeming factor doesn't carry the book very far. Where North Star scores, however, is in bringing out how beautiful Madras has become modern Chennai but that, unfortunately, is not the main story.
North Star;R. Chandramouli, Think Big Books, Rs. 190.
