The Beautiful Sky by Harshwardhan is one of the longest romance novels ever written by an Indian author. Over 530 pages, the novel explores what miracles an unconditional love can bring forward. On a broader side of the novel, the story is of two young people Vian and Amyra. They were students together in Mumbai. After some hiccups Amyra finds love in Vian. Though Vian is creative, much busy in Shayari and writing, on the other hand, Amyra is not serious. She doesn’t mind intimacy with her boyfriends. She enjoys life and also a pragmatic person.

Great love stories are made among two equally opposite persons. So, they are in all senses. Vian is serious about her and wants to carve out a career for him so that he gets what he thinks is his. This is a different novel, right from the first page and instance up till the last line. But love is like banter in the backdrop. The story has many emotions such as friendship, emotional crises, trauma, love, infatuation and so on.

The novel shuttles between various timelines. For instance Vian and Amyra’s college life in 2014 and 2016. Vian’s struggle in life as a creative person along with job in 2020, and Amyra being gang-raped in 2020 and her healing process that goes up to the current time. This novel is not straight. Also language usage is tumultuous as it is written in Hinglish. In spite of all odds, the novel delivers the message that rape victims need to be understood and helped, not ignored. It will be fascinating to note how Vian crosses all obstacles to help Amyra in her healing post the gang rape. The story is way long but puts an engaging show, one can feel as watching some Indian reality show, the vibes were similar. Much part of the novel holds uncountable shayaris. Vian being a Shayar locally, composes shayari for all occasions, be it tragic or happy. In fact, it was his Shayari fame that brought him close to Amyra.

Ignoring its ‘only-adults-can-read’, otherwise this novel is strong and worth your time if you are into off-track romance novels. But it manages to convey that love is blind and unconditional love is beyond the realms of common vista.  

Our View on the Cover:

The cover page is totally romantic and it goes as per the title. Indeed one couple is standing carefree under the blue sky that is giving vibes as someone is in love. It’s a capable cover of pulling good audience. Since the novel is focused on two characters, the cover image is clear with two persons. It’s a captivating cover with no clutter to confuse the people.

Characters:

The novel has a long list of characters other than the leads. The long list belongs to friends and kin of Vian and Amyra. Other than that, only Vian and Amyra are the sort of lead characters. And among these two, it is Vian that leads the story. His characterization is slightly unrealistic, because he gets into things like a stubborn guy. He gets into fights unnecessarily; he is flawed but overly determined. Auxiliary characters were stereotype in their setting. They did their job perfectly.

Writing Style:

Harshwardhan used Hindi and English. It is a Hinglish novel. Mostly dialogues and conversation is done in Hindi but typed as Roman English. Native and first-time readers can get acquainted with the book quite soon. However, compulsive readers may not accept the combination as it involves way much slang and abuse. The narration is simple, posing no challenges for readers. Vocabulary had been kept simple. With simple language, the author still tied the story to readers’ consciousness.

Our Final Verdict:  

It is strictly an adult read. The USP of the novel is Hinglish, and holds bitter message for the society. It raises hope for rape victims. It shows the grim reality of being a rape victim. Vian and Amyra shines with their share of story. However, somewhere deep an undercurrent theme runs and that is inspired from the book ‘The Secret’ and a fictional novel by Pran. Overall, a good read…but long as well.