The Mug Of Melancholy | A Fantasy Book Which Follows Harry Potter Path | Personal Reviews

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The Mug of Melancholy takes you back to the world of fantasy, the world of magic. The world where anything can happen. There are no natural rules to be bound with. You can play with the elements of the nature and produce the desired results. When we were kids, we used to like such fantasies and mythology was adding to our pleasent assumption about the world.

After getting adult we got to know that, the fantasies are what they are called, just fantasies. The real world is full of harsh realities. Which in turn broke off a lot of our perceptions. But, the same thing tricks us into thinking about the ideal world. The world where truth triumphs. The world where we can see our fantasies being converted into realities. And that is the reason why we love fantasy literature (and in fact movies and TV Shows and other media) as a clever and wise adults; which are otherwise considered as children literature.

For that matter – The Lord Of The Rings – or – Narnia – or – Harry Potter – or – Gulliver’s travels – books are liked equally by children and young adults and even older people too. And people love to read fantasy novels as they give them the relief they need.

Adding to the series we came across a book named – The Mug Of Melancholy – by debutant author Rohit Chakraborty. In recent time, after Deepak Kripal‘s – Devil’s Gate : An Unexpected Journey : 1 – this is one more quality book we found which falls in fantasy genre and written by an Indian author. The book however have a lot of inspiration taken from the Harry Potter books written by J K Rowling. While reading the book you may draw a lot of parallels between the Harry Potter novels and the Mug of Melancholy.

Harry Potter Books	The Mug Of Melancholy
Flying Broomsticks	Flying Armchair
Portkeys	Benchporting
Travelling through fireplace	Tree-travelling
Buckbeak	Garud
Wand	Sceptre
Patronus charm	Adruaninity

and many more…

It may lead you to question:
Is the book just a parody or spoof of Harry Potter series?
The small answer is :
No.

But it is highly inspired from it for sure. It seems the writer have the canvas ready with him and he have to fantasise in different zone to weave the colors into the same. Though it is wrong to say, you don’t need to put efforts in doing so. You have to think hard, introduce new world with new words and phrases and you need to write convincingly.

The book succeed in doing so at a large extent.

• How much can a man stuff in his head?
  “As much as it does not bother him and he continues to love what he loves to do” said Bhuvan.
• Gifts, man a time, are vested in more than just one; it’s just what you do with it that makes you different from other”
• The Crow’ll caw and the scorpion will sling.
  With time the agent of evil will bring
  A corrupting influence to mind and soul
  So the greedy heat’ll achieve its goal
  Keeping you on your toes
  Turning freiends into foes
  Or so the writing in the blurred future goes.
• I see deep love portrayed.
  I see deep trust betrayed.
  I see the eagle weakened;
  Then, i see him flying, strengthened.
  I can’t tell if the sun’ll shine bright
  Or shadows plunge the world in fright
  But thoughts affect actions – noble and ill
  Make the most of what you will.”
  
• Only the happiest person in the world would be able to move it from its spot so that it can be used.
  “But isn’t it pointless? The happiest person, who removes the Mug wouldn’t need it if he is happy.”
  “You are right It is rather pointless. But the world would not allow one to remain happy for an eternity, would it?”

You can know more about the author of the book, and view some cool illustrations about various stuff mentioned (in the book) at: http://therohitchakrabortyblog.tumblr.com/ We are also wondering that why a book trailer is not available for this one. May be author/publisher have no budget for the same! Or may be we will see it appearing in coming days, after the book started getting some recognition.

If we talk about the literary aspects, the book brings a lot of new words in the vocabulary. Various new fantasy zones are created (convincingly in most cases). There are a few places where we think the sentences are not made perfectly, but can ignore it. The book tends to have a small problem between moving from one scene to the another, at a few places. Also the relationship between Anil and Bhuvan can be elaborated in better manner. There are some scenes which unconvincing, like, Bhuvan shouting at his father and pushing him to get in (in his home).

Bhuvan Chauhan, on his 15th birthday overhear a conversation between his father Anil and Neera (one of their neighbours) which makes his world upside down. He gradually introduced to a fantasy world where people with special skills live. They are known as Andrunains.

His journey in the new world passes through Jaladhara (Neera’s daughter, Bhuvan’s friend), Orville (a student of Padma Institute, Bhuvan’s friend), Mr. Omenwhysky and his daughter Revyana, Zoya (a wraith), Amaterasu Sansui, and many more.

This is the first book of a series of 5 books (planned), so at the end of the book, you will still be waiting for a lot of questions to be answered. You may find many loose ends and hope them to be tightly linked in coming books. The last chapter could have been written better to raise curiosity for the next part.

The book’s canvas is around Shillong, a rather less talked about city from North-East India. The author is appreciated to weave the incidents around it and bring it to lime light.

Summary:

The book however works nicely at many segments. If you love fantasy writing than this one is definitely worth going for, once at least. The book is primarily written for young adults and the content seems enjoyable for them for sure.

Quick Purchase Links:

• The Mug of Melancholy : For Indian customers : Amazon Indian
• The Mug of Melancholy : For International Customers : Amazon.com