In his collection of stories, "Ottaikkoru Shakunthala", Tom J Mangad strips surrealism of its metaphysical era.

Surrealistic stories in Malayalam often have a metaphysical background; at least, the characters have some real or pseudo divinity about them. This looks like an anticipatory bail to fend off criticism. For example, most of Sethu's characters hint at reincarnation or transmigration of souls. For M.Mukundan and O.V.Vijayan, surrealism has definite purposes.

In 'Ottaikoru Sakunthala' Tom.J.Mangad strips Surrealism of its elite and holy nature and presents it as an every day experience. All the eight stories in this Book are experimental. Each story has unique tone and treatment. The variety in style and treatment makes it hard to believe that they all came from the same mind. Still, there are some common features. There isn't anything special about the characters or their background. But the mirror held against them has some aberration. Thus, they look somewhat familiar to us. The themes of the stories also appear distorted. Without this technique, the stories would have been parables and reports.

Tom tries to grab our attention by making the world more puzzling and complex. Each of the stories challenges and analyses our impression of the things around us. "Ottaikoru Shakuntala" gives us a different picture of terrorism. Shakuntala symbolizes the essence of kindness and compassion in us.

'Chathurangathamburan' (The lord of chess) tells us how the writing of history becomes a chess game between Power and Imagination with scholarship as the helpless onlooker. Other stories also deal with such concepts as morality, lust and love. 'Miss Merooninte Kathaprapancham' a story with the appearance of a parable that reveals the intrinsic motivation of story tellers, tells us how they put up with strange bedfellows to please us with their creations

Tom's language does not lend itself to the wide range of narrative techniques he uses. A tacit comment by S Jayachandran Nair, in the preface, that the writer should "absorb more from life to give more of himself" is worth paying heed to.

Courtesy : The Hindu