After ‘Kosla’, it was Makarand Sathe’s novel ‘Achyut Athawle Ani Athwan’, that set a new precedent and proved to be a milestone. His second novel ‘Operation Yamu’ surpasses that. A novel that starts with a seemingly straightforward narration, soon creates an atmosphere that makes breathing harder and fills the environment with such an intense nameless menace that one feels like one is in the presence of Kafka’s brother. A woman stalks a man. An action that almost feels comic at first. Soon, as the drama gets darker, it shakes one’s confidence to its very core. Is the stalking real or not? Is the woman real or not? The real, the unreal, the imagined all blend together and the resulting experience cannot be described in any existing framework. Similar to his first novel, it becomes impossible to separate the content of the novel from its form. At times the narration style becomes the content itself.
While the protagonist enjoys all the worldly pleasures of modern life, has a career he has chosen and spends his time surrounded by friends he loves, what is that nameless fear he is plagued by? As one reads on, one realizes that this fear is all-encompassing. It has no definite cause and may overpower one when one is least aware.
This is the meaning I understood; but the novel carries within it, various such possibilities. If I read it after a year, I am certain that it will give me a different experience. And to each new reader, a different one. That is its greatness. This is a true 21st century novel.
— Mahesh Elkunchwar
ISBN: 978-81-7991-934-7
Number of pages: 126
Language: English
Cover: Paperback
Year of Publication: 2018
