Book Review - Those Pricey Thakur Girls

Author: Anuja Chauhan

Publisher: HarperCollins

Publication Year: 2013

Pages: 400

Source: Personal Copy

Rating: 4/5

In a sprawling bungalow on New Delhi’s posh Hailey Road, Justice Laxmi Narayan Thakur and his wife Mamta spend their days watching anxiously over their five beautiful (but troublesome) alphabetically named daughters.

Anjini, married but an incorrigible flirt; Binodini, very worried about her children’s hissa in the family property; Chandrakanta, who eloped with a foreigner on the eve of her wedding; Eshwari, who is just a little too popular at Modern School, Barakhamba Road; and the Judges favourite (though fathers shouldn’t have favourites): the quietly fiery Debjani, champion of all the stray animals on Hailey Road, who reads the English news on DD and clashes constantly with crusading journalist Dylan Singh Shekhawat, he of shining professional credentials but tarnished personal reputation, crushingly dismissive of her state-sponsored propaganda, but always seeking her out with half-sarcastic, half-intrigued dark eyes.

Spot-on funny and toe-curlingly sexy, Those Pricey Thakur Girls is rom-com specialist Anuja Chauhan writing at her sparkling best.

This is my first read from any of Anuja Chauhan’s work and I am impressed with her capabilities. The further I into the book; the more I found it difficult to put it down. It took me only two days to complete the book. Such is the intensity of engrossment this book extends! Also, praise to Harper Collins for such a sassy and interesting book cover. It does play a huge part in grabbing reader’s curiosity.

Set in the backdrop of a wired telephone era of the 80s, “Those Pricey Thakur Girls” is a story of confrontations and ardor between a subservient and charismatic news reader Debjani and a fearless, justice-seeking journalist Dylan. Around them are other cleverly interlaced characters – a retired attorney Laxmi Narayan Thakur (Debjani’s father), her homemaker mother, the other alphabetically named daughters of the Thakurs’ (they come in with amusingly different hues of character), an extended family (a philanderer uncle, vexing Chachiji and their good-for-nothing son), the Shekhawats (attorney’s friend and Dylan’s family) and the other populaces of Hailey Road.

The book is a delectable read right from its first page to the last line. Author’s style of storytelling is light-hearted but intellectual. Though categorized under the chic-lit genre, with a mix of wittiness and colloquial liveliness, this book is far off from the absurdity of some of the other works of the kind.

Anuja Chauhan has skillfully rendered the components that is essential in crafting an animated drama - tangy romance, family-ties, gossips and heaps of humor. The book has managed to capture the shades of everyday vibrant life. Apart from an interesting storyline, what stands out is the amount of detailing Anuja has put up to paint the times of DoorDarshan and of Maruti 800, of the post Indira Gandhi assassination period and the Sikh riots.

The book does show some hints of Jane Austen-esque style when it comes to the characters and bird’s eye view of storyline, but can be easily forgotten for the hilarity it offers. I feel some more justice could have been done with the characters of Eshwari and ‘Steesh’. Their part of the story seems to conclude abruptly. It somehow doesn’t fit in properly. Anuja Chauhan has managed to keep her readers amused and hooked till the end, despite the predictability this genre demands. Another interesting character that plays an important role in the plot, apart from Dylan and Debjani, is the cat that appears on the cover of the book.

If you are a fan of popular fiction, I will certainly recommend this book as a very good read. And if you are a girl, I am sure you will fall for the dimpled, courageous and irresistible Dylan Singh Shekhawat. Hysterical and entertaining to the core, “Those Pricey Thakur Girls” will make you sad when the journey comes to an end and make you wish some more of it.