CHARACTERS: 4/5
WRITING STYLE: 3.5/5
CLIMAX: 2/5
ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 4/5
Nishat Fatima, the highly renowned and celebrated editor of Harper’s Bazaar India has come out with her debut novel – Seriously, Sitara?
The self-confessed romance fan is now here with her romantic-comedy to amuse the Indian readers.
So let’s find out whether this fashion editor turned author has delivered what she is best known for – perfection.
Sitara (with difficult to pronounce multi-syllable surname) Gopalasundaram is a thirty-something unmarried and single girl, who is incessantly pleaded by her “Tam- Bram”(Tamil Brahmin) parents to give in to marital bliss (read get married).
She works as an arts editor at an international men’s magazine “Homme” where her sadistic boss Debashish has put her on a rather bizarre assignment to interview the Bollywood star Nasser Khan, the star whom everybody is in love with.
She is furious with this assignment of hers’ which was taken away from Mukul (the Bollywood reporter) and handed over to Sitara (the arts editor) just so that his sadistic boss could get even with Mukul.
Fun unravels when she first meets Nasser Khan and then goes on throughout the course of the book.
To say I enjoyed Seriously, Sitara? would be a serious understatement because I simply loved it; it was one of the best chick-lits I have read in recent times.
“Polka dots, Ponytails & Purple Pouts” by Amrita Anand Nayak and “Men on my mind” by Radha Thomas being my last read chick-lits which came fairly close to this one.
Interspersed with the right amount of humour and wit, the romance was truly awesome. The character of Sitara was beautifully thought of and well-nurtured.
I have become a complete fan of her striking individuality among the sea of everyday chick-lit protagonists. I enjoyed her at every point of time and to be completely truthful, there were some Seriously, Sitara? moments for me too.
Nasser Khan and Naeem Khan were a deadly duo and I loved their characters.
I particularly liked Nasser’s character as it portrayed how an ideal film star should be at any time; so humble and so charming. I was also impressed by Nasser’s mom Ayesha and dad Bashir.
Karthik and Girish, with their hilarious comical timings, were also amusing in their own way.
The plot was good, and though the end was quite predictable Nishat has done a very good job with the narratives and the scenes, hooking the reader in me right till the end. I liked the use of 3rd person voice.
In recent times, I have observed that such light read novels are better appealing and better written when they are done in a 3rd person voice than a 1st person.
The only thing which I couldn’t digest about Seriously, Sitara? was the over the board humility and down to earth attitude which was shown as a key virtue of Nasser Khan which to me appeared a little unrealistic.
In addition to this, there was also an excess of co-incidences with respect to Sitara and Nasser crossing each other’s path so many times.
Barring this, the book is an amazing read and I recommend it to all chick-lit lovers. All the best Nishat Fatima, I hope to see more of Sitara’s adventures in the next book. I hope you continue with Sitara in the next one too..!!