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Faceless
"Dildo in a bin! Who put it in?" Embarrassed about mistaking a vibrator for a bomb, Khush and his anti-terror squad go about looking for the owner of the pleasure tool. Khush and Shom have been friends since childhood. In their forties now, they love to swing to latino beats in Mumbai's nightclubs. Shom, the reticent one, is very different from the flamboyant Khush. Everything changes when Shom meets Raima. Their sensual yet spiritual love is separated by age, wealth and background. Shom throws caution to the wind and meets life head on, choosing honesty over hypocrisy. It's a Love Story emerging in the contemporary world of wealth, lust and power, like the freshness of the lotus flowering in stagnant waters. Raima, a victim of circumstance, is exposed to the world very early in life and as such she is tough, sharp and street smart. She is the soul of the book. Faceless is the story of love and passion so powerful, so pure, that we live it with Shom and Raima.
240 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2011
2 people are currently reading
22 people want to read
About the author
Tapan Ghosh
19 books12 followersEngineer, entrepreneur, technocrat
There is a little of me in all that
But there is more to me than you see
Young at heart, a spirit that soars free
Film maker, writer, thinker, rolled into one
The creative me is a lot of fun
I think, I write, I film, I express
For life is not just work, work and stress
What you see here are my expressions true
I hope they strike a chord within you
There is a little of me in all that
But there is more to me than you see
Young at heart, a spirit that soars free
Film maker, writer, thinker, rolled into one
The creative me is a lot of fun
I think, I write, I film, I express
For life is not just work, work and stress
What you see here are my expressions true
I hope they strike a chord within you
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 19, 2012
By Tapan Ghosh. Grade C
“Dildo in a bin! Who put it in?”
Embarrassed about mistaking a vibrator for a bomb, Khush and his anti-terror squad go about looking for the owner of the pleasure tool. Khush and Shom have been friends since childhood. In their forties now, they love to swing to latino beats in Mumbai’s nightclubs. Shom, the reticent one, is very different from the flamboyant Khush. Everything changes when Shom meets Raima. Their sensual yet spiritual love is separated by age, wealth and background. Shom throws caution to the wind and meets life head on, choosing honesty over hypocrisy. It’s a Love Story emerging in the contemporary world of wealth, lust and power, like the freshness of the lotus flowering in stagnant waters. Raima, a victim of circumstance, is exposed to the world very early in life and as such she is tough, sharp and street smart. She is the soul of the book.
Faceless is the story of love and passion so powerful, so pure, that we live it with Shom and Raima.
Right from the blurb, you can see that the story is a divided between a village of characters. We have Khush, Natasha, Shom, Raima, Natasha’s mom and many more. However, as you progress, you notice that the book mainly revolves around Raima and Shom.
Shom is a successful business man who falls for this ‘faceless’ escort (Raima) on Facebook and Blackberry chats. They decide to remain “faceless”. As time passes by, they maintain their contact, come closer and gradually, fall in love. But being in love isn’t that simple now. They aren’t some teenagers and their life isn’t that simple. Shom happens to be married and they both have their baggage.
As they say the first impression of the book goes by it’s cover. I liked the cover of the book. It was different from the usual and had a strong impact on me.
I also appreciated the editing. It may come across as a surprise to non-Indian readers of this blog about the terrible reality of Indian publishing houses. Some of them are so absorbed in rising to the top that they concentrate on the quantity and the quality, that’s why, goes to hell.
However, Mr. Ghosh has done his homework before he started writing and I am terribly happy for that.
As you go through the chapters it changes to the perspective of one of these main characters. The problem came when I wasn’t always ready to change perspectives like that. While it was a great suspense builder, I didn’t enjoy that method very much.
The first lines of the books were – “Dildo in a bin…” While they were attention grabbing, they were also inappropriate for the target readers.
In another scene, Shom goes to a wedding where the groom arrives drunk and abuses the bride in front of everyone. The marriage is cancelled with the bride’s mother weeping and begging the groom to marry her daughter. Shom, the gallant hero he is, offers to marry a perfect stranger because he can’t stand a damsel in distress. I found it completely ridiculous and a mockery of sacred vows. Why would the bride marry him? For all she knew, he could be a penniless rapist?
The other thing was that Raima’s uncle raped her when she was a kid. I got the impression that the scene had been written just for the sake of it. While it enhanced the character, the author failed to build upon it. There are no references to it later in the story, and no connection of the scene with how it affected Raima and made her into a person she is. It was all but forgotten.
Ultimately, I’d say that it’s a very subjective read. The language isn’t something you’d hear in a tea party. If you’re comfortable with that sort of a thing, and if you try not to find too much logic, you’ll like this.
Originally reviewed at :www.vaultofbooks.com
“Dildo in a bin! Who put it in?”
Embarrassed about mistaking a vibrator for a bomb, Khush and his anti-terror squad go about looking for the owner of the pleasure tool. Khush and Shom have been friends since childhood. In their forties now, they love to swing to latino beats in Mumbai’s nightclubs. Shom, the reticent one, is very different from the flamboyant Khush. Everything changes when Shom meets Raima. Their sensual yet spiritual love is separated by age, wealth and background. Shom throws caution to the wind and meets life head on, choosing honesty over hypocrisy. It’s a Love Story emerging in the contemporary world of wealth, lust and power, like the freshness of the lotus flowering in stagnant waters. Raima, a victim of circumstance, is exposed to the world very early in life and as such she is tough, sharp and street smart. She is the soul of the book.
Faceless is the story of love and passion so powerful, so pure, that we live it with Shom and Raima.
Right from the blurb, you can see that the story is a divided between a village of characters. We have Khush, Natasha, Shom, Raima, Natasha’s mom and many more. However, as you progress, you notice that the book mainly revolves around Raima and Shom.
Shom is a successful business man who falls for this ‘faceless’ escort (Raima) on Facebook and Blackberry chats. They decide to remain “faceless”. As time passes by, they maintain their contact, come closer and gradually, fall in love. But being in love isn’t that simple now. They aren’t some teenagers and their life isn’t that simple. Shom happens to be married and they both have their baggage.
As they say the first impression of the book goes by it’s cover. I liked the cover of the book. It was different from the usual and had a strong impact on me.
I also appreciated the editing. It may come across as a surprise to non-Indian readers of this blog about the terrible reality of Indian publishing houses. Some of them are so absorbed in rising to the top that they concentrate on the quantity and the quality, that’s why, goes to hell.
However, Mr. Ghosh has done his homework before he started writing and I am terribly happy for that.
As you go through the chapters it changes to the perspective of one of these main characters. The problem came when I wasn’t always ready to change perspectives like that. While it was a great suspense builder, I didn’t enjoy that method very much.
The first lines of the books were – “Dildo in a bin…” While they were attention grabbing, they were also inappropriate for the target readers.
In another scene, Shom goes to a wedding where the groom arrives drunk and abuses the bride in front of everyone. The marriage is cancelled with the bride’s mother weeping and begging the groom to marry her daughter. Shom, the gallant hero he is, offers to marry a perfect stranger because he can’t stand a damsel in distress. I found it completely ridiculous and a mockery of sacred vows. Why would the bride marry him? For all she knew, he could be a penniless rapist?
The other thing was that Raima’s uncle raped her when she was a kid. I got the impression that the scene had been written just for the sake of it. While it enhanced the character, the author failed to build upon it. There are no references to it later in the story, and no connection of the scene with how it affected Raima and made her into a person she is. It was all but forgotten.
Ultimately, I’d say that it’s a very subjective read. The language isn’t something you’d hear in a tea party. If you’re comfortable with that sort of a thing, and if you try not to find too much logic, you’ll like this.
Originally reviewed at :www.vaultofbooks.com
June 16, 2015
The blurb on the book says 'soon to be made into a motion picture'. If i meet the producer tomorrow morning, i would advise him to stay away from this one and save some money. Faceless by Tapan Ghosh is a mixture of everything, yet nothing. The story line is as dead as the dildo in the bin, which incidentally is the starting point of the story. This particular plot point is used mainly as a shock reference and does not compensate in any way for the monotonous tone or an overdose of philosophy and wisdom in the narrative.
Embarrassed about mistaking a vibrator for a bomb, the anti terror squad go looking for its owner. This silly piece then proceeds to introduce each of the characters, Khush, Shom, Swapna, Natasha and Sara in a sequential way each having a back story to bank upon. Things get interesting when Raima meets Shom. They are mutually attracted, fall in love and at last find their true soul mates in each other! Their sensual and passionate love is the crux of the story. Will their love survive the test of time? Or will they desert each other?
Lying solely on sexual innuedos and two-faced jokes, it is hardly original writing and heavily borrows from those American sit-coms. Alas, if it was even half as entertaining, it would have made my reading day. The plot is clumsy, punctuated with awkward scenes and cringing dialogues and even the transition between the various plot points is hardly seamless. Even the climax, inspired from a Class-A recent Bollywood thriller is also a cop-out and does not engage you enough to forget it flaws.
The constant 'i wanna be cool' repartee and expletive-laden language gets boring after a while, mainly because each of them is followed by a half-baked, unconvincing plot point that clearly stretches your imagination to absurd regions. It is not a hard read, pacing is fast and language lucid; but you can't compensate for something as basic as a storyline in such a quick metro read.
I am going with 1.5/5 for Tapan Ghosh's 'Faceless'. Save your face, stay away from reading it. There are many good things to do in life, reading this one is definitely not one of them.
Embarrassed about mistaking a vibrator for a bomb, the anti terror squad go looking for its owner. This silly piece then proceeds to introduce each of the characters, Khush, Shom, Swapna, Natasha and Sara in a sequential way each having a back story to bank upon. Things get interesting when Raima meets Shom. They are mutually attracted, fall in love and at last find their true soul mates in each other! Their sensual and passionate love is the crux of the story. Will their love survive the test of time? Or will they desert each other?
Lying solely on sexual innuedos and two-faced jokes, it is hardly original writing and heavily borrows from those American sit-coms. Alas, if it was even half as entertaining, it would have made my reading day. The plot is clumsy, punctuated with awkward scenes and cringing dialogues and even the transition between the various plot points is hardly seamless. Even the climax, inspired from a Class-A recent Bollywood thriller is also a cop-out and does not engage you enough to forget it flaws.
The constant 'i wanna be cool' repartee and expletive-laden language gets boring after a while, mainly because each of them is followed by a half-baked, unconvincing plot point that clearly stretches your imagination to absurd regions. It is not a hard read, pacing is fast and language lucid; but you can't compensate for something as basic as a storyline in such a quick metro read.
I am going with 1.5/5 for Tapan Ghosh's 'Faceless'. Save your face, stay away from reading it. There are many good things to do in life, reading this one is definitely not one of them.
January 4, 2012
shallow in deep waters!
Faceless is a poignant and mature tale of human relationships and attempts to redefine the meaning of illicit relationship and prostitution - although only in one chapter. It also involves interesting info about shemales - a category or the 3rd gender we hardly know about!
However sadly , the beginning of the story although interesting '"dildo in a bin , who put it in?" makes some readers anxious to open it and expect something much lighter. The initial part of the book seems to be like a big joke and it even makes us wonder if the joke is on us!
The story focuses on the relationship of 40 something Shom ( who is married) with Raima - the street smart woman and Kush , their flamboyant mutual friend. The characters are fleshy and deep =)
The hindi dialogues without appropriate meanings and the songs in between are speed breakers. The book is written in simple language and can be completed quickly.
The guilty conscience of the men never seems to be at work and this gives us the sense that cheating ones wife is not wrong or even acceptable. This book attempts to break new ground but breaks itself through cliches . It also attempts to delve too deep on reflections than actions and gives us not a sense of story.
The highly sexually active relationship puts off some people and the later maturity is surprisingly nice though one finds it hard to believe after the initial action!
Logical loop holes - There is no proper reason for Raima falling head over heels in love with shom and it leads us to think like she's overdoing it or being a gold digger.
and the last 10 pages are so incredibly out of sync with the whole book and moves so fast it defeats logic. Most incredulous epilogue :P
Wait . The book is becoming a movie right?! xD Thats why! It would be 90% of the action packed epilogue and 90% of the soulful story
Faceless is a poignant and mature tale of human relationships and attempts to redefine the meaning of illicit relationship and prostitution - although only in one chapter. It also involves interesting info about shemales - a category or the 3rd gender we hardly know about!
However sadly , the beginning of the story although interesting '"dildo in a bin , who put it in?" makes some readers anxious to open it and expect something much lighter. The initial part of the book seems to be like a big joke and it even makes us wonder if the joke is on us!
The story focuses on the relationship of 40 something Shom ( who is married) with Raima - the street smart woman and Kush , their flamboyant mutual friend. The characters are fleshy and deep =)
The hindi dialogues without appropriate meanings and the songs in between are speed breakers. The book is written in simple language and can be completed quickly.
The guilty conscience of the men never seems to be at work and this gives us the sense that cheating ones wife is not wrong or even acceptable. This book attempts to break new ground but breaks itself through cliches . It also attempts to delve too deep on reflections than actions and gives us not a sense of story.
The highly sexually active relationship puts off some people and the later maturity is surprisingly nice though one finds it hard to believe after the initial action!
Logical loop holes - There is no proper reason for Raima falling head over heels in love with shom and it leads us to think like she's overdoing it or being a gold digger.
and the last 10 pages are so incredibly out of sync with the whole book and moves so fast it defeats logic. Most incredulous epilogue :P
Wait . The book is becoming a movie right?! xD Thats why! It would be 90% of the action packed epilogue and 90% of the soulful story
August 7, 2016
Sadly, this book was just bad. The author seems to be slightly delusional as to how life in Mumbai( or SoBo, as the author calls it) is. the story is fragmented,and there isn't much of a story to begin with in the first place. The readers fails to understand the basis of the relationship between the two besides just plain lust.
September 23, 2012
Not that impressive.One time read.
February 26, 2013
very boaring
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews