Uff Ye Emotions Review: A cake for the chic lit lovers, but...

Book: Uff Ye Emotions

Authors: Vinit Bansal, Anjit Sharma, Abhilash Ruhela, Priyanka Dey, Saurabh Arya, C. Suresh, Pankaj Mittal, Rachna Seth, Sanhita Baruah, Stephen Anthony, Himanshu Chhabra, Drishti Dasgupta

Publisher: Mahaveer Publishers

Genre: Romance

Pages: 206

Price: Rs 139

Rating: 3.2 out of 5

Review: ‘Uff Ye Emotions’ is an anthology of 11 short stories, each written by a different author. True to the name, the stories all dabble in emotions albeit of a similar kind. Though, each story is an independent love story and most are readable, some even engaging, there is no story which attempts something fresh. Most stories suffer from cliché and explore the emotional side of young college-goers or the 21^st century MNC employees. No author dares to tell an untold story, nobody shows the audacity, or the imagination, to stitch up a romance unheard of.

The only story that takes a slightly different path and makes the reader sit up and notice is Anjit Sharma’s ‘The Soulmate’. Though it opens up with the hint of yet another boy-girl mushy tale, it soon meanders over to a different genre. A bit thrilling, a tad spooky and a touch mysterious, ‘The Soulmate’ scores because of its convoluted plot and an engaging narration.

‘Love@Platform’, the opening story by Vinit K Bansal, is also absorbing. Its opening pages are heart-tugging, and even though it loses some of its charm in the subsequent pages, its climax is definitely not a hackneyed ‘happy ending’ stuff.

‘A Date with the Fate’ by Abhilash Ruhela is an ‘okay’ type tale. It is good, but not good enough. The writing is amateurish and the story lacks that punch. One can always read it in leisure, but it is not what we call an ‘unputdownable’ story.

Priyanka Dey, a blogger who has made a mark with her poems, authors the next tale titled ‘Reminiscences’. The story has several shades and ends beautifully on a poignant note. However, Dey has inked some truly amazing poems over the years and this story does not do full justice to her talent. She is definitely a far better poet than she is a story-teller.

The book accommodates a few other stories like ‘The Intercity Express’ (by Stephen Anthony), ‘Happily Ever After’ (by Sanhita Baruah) and ‘A Path of Thorns’ (by C. Suresh) amongst others.

Almost all the stories are similar in their theme and settings (incidentally many are set inside/outside a train/railway station). While some stories may touch you, some may just make for a light read. If you feed on chic lit romance, then this book will be a ‘paisa vasool’ (money’s worth). But if you love those chaste love stories portrayed by Austen, Bronte and Mitchell in their classics, then you will be a touch disappointed with this one. With simple and not-so-impactful English and an overdose of chic romance, “Uff Ye Emotions” may not quite elicit a happy “emotion” within you.

~Ritesh Agarwal

Email: ritzy182000@gmail.com

Note: Most of the authors who have contributed in this book are my fellow-bloggers and some are even friends/acquaintances. I congratulate each of you for getting published and reserving a space in literature. The review above may seem a bit harsh to some. But as a genuine reviewer, I need to be honest with my opinions. And the entire world knows, I am a harsh critic. I give a 2-3 star rating to many of my own stories. You guys still got 3.2   ;)

Update, 14th June, 2013 - I later discovered that I had missed out on one story titled 'Happily Ever After' by Sanhita Baruah. I dunno how I missed reading it. But having realized my folly, I read it later and found it to be surprisingly refreshing. With its unpredictable plot and a well-crafted climax, it stood out and, in my opinion, is the best story of the book.
On the light of this new discovery, I allot the rating of 3.4 to 'Uff Ye Emotions'.