Kerala

In her honest opinion

“It (Indian writing in English) is nothing compared to regional literature.”

Film critic, socialite, writer…a person of varied talents, Shobhaa De talks to P.K. Ajith Kumar on Bollywood films and Indian writing in English.

Shobhaa De’s views remain refreshing, just like her looks.

“I know I offend a lot of people through my columns, but I want to be honest,” says the writer who turned 60 this year. “Recently, I upset a few people with my views on the Bollywood film ‘Singh Is Kingg.’ It was touted as the ‘biggest everything.’ So what? Did it deliver what it promised to me? It didn’t. And it didn’t entertain me. ‘Bachna Ye Haseeno,’ I thought, was a better film. There was romance, lovely locales and the girls were looking hot, whereas ‘Singh is Kingg’ is foolish… it has no story.”

Looking back at the story of her own life as a writer, she says she would never have become a novelist but for the persuasion from David Davidhar. “If he hadn’t asked me to write a novel, I wouldn’t have even thought of writing ‘Socialite Evenings,’ which remains my own favourite book even now,” says De, who was in Kozhikode recently.

She believes Indian writing in English has a long way to go still. “It is nothing compared to regional literature,” she says. “What does a best-seller amount to? It is a joke by world standard. All the significant publishers have come to India over the last couple of years, but none has had a spectacular success so far.”

Among the contemporary Indian writers in English, she rates Vikram Seth as the best. “What he achieved with ‘The Golden Gate’ was amazing. He has complete mastery over the language. I enjoyed his ‘A Suitable Boy’ too. I feel he and R.K. Narayan are two Indian writers who will continue to be read. Salman Rushdie is brilliant of course, but I don’t consider him as an Indian writer.” She was impressed by Arundhati Roy’s ‘The God of Small Things’ too. “I liked it more for its style than content. Her usage of language is unique, magical.”

De herself was noted for the way she used the English language when she introduced Hindi words in her writings on Bollywood. “During my ‘Stardust’ days, when I began using Hindi words like ‘bindaas’ in my writings there was a lot of criticism. Now it is amusing to find that even the mainstream newspapers are using Hindi words on front pages and I am called the ‘godmother of Hinglish,’” she smiles.

Who have been the most tolerant of her criticism?

“I would say Amitabh Bachchan, and Aamir Khan, who is very polite whenever we meet though I have written a lot negatively against him. Though he is brilliant, intelligent, articulate and well-read, rather like Shah Rukh Khan I find his acting completely cerebral… there is no heart. I have had my blog wars with Bachchan, but he has been very gracious.”

De says her next book, following ‘Superstar India – From Incredible to Unstoppable,’ will be fiction. “It will be out within a year or so,” she says.

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