I have attempted a poetry review first time as a writer. I don’t claim to be a poet, never thought it was my forte and find quite a lot of poetry difficult to grasp. Still I did try some ocassional scribblings in the last two years.These short verses, though may not be of exemplary poetic value, perhaps were inevitable emotions coming out from my deep within durign the pandemic. That is how poets are born I guess. I am now more regular in reading poems and trying to decipher their meaning between lines.

poetry review

I chose to do a review of poetry collection by Anirban Bhattacharya because of two reasons. I got introduced to him when I pitched my manuscript to Penmancy’s pitchfest in April-May 2021. After I got to know that he is the producer of my favourite crime TV show Crime Patrol on Sony TV , who was going to interview me as one of the judges I was awestruck and thrilled and considered myself fortunate. His non-fiction India’s deadly dozens is best seller on amazon. My fascination and curiosity about his work made me pick up his newly released poetry book and try this review.

The poetry collection of Mumblings and Musings by Anirban Bhattacharya is awe inspiring and deeply touching. Going from page to page each poem reveals life in such varied shades and colours filtered through lenses of diverse men and women that hit your heart with razor sharpness as much they leave you stunned with open jaws. Certainly the poet has fascination for death as much as for life. Going from page after page, he makes the reader feel, touch and smell death and darkness very closely. Though not a surprise coming from the author of the best seller The Deadly Dozens, and producer of Crime Patrol and Saavdhan India,  he clearly is a talented writer wearing many hats.

His tone of melancholy and morbidity run through all his poems that is intricately woven with his empathy towards the poor and underprivileged. I was particularly besotted with the lines

concrete hands search skies
bound by asbestos souls
Voices rebound off broken walls…, in the snippets of conversations.
 

The world seen
Through photo chromatic lenses
Watching green grass
Sitting on knees…, in the world now

Fingerless palms greet you
A beatific smile
All is well with the world
The tethered throne is a piece of land that she calls her own.. in The Tenth leper

My other favourites are Clothesline, The fly, Feelings, Final Chant , Merging, The Butcher, The Madman on the street. His memories – often harking to past make one in many of the brilliant literary tools he uses to depict life’s ephemerality, pain and poignancy. The same prevail in some of the tales from his musings and monologues  which though seem like his personal experiences the themes are compelling and resonate with every reader. The accompanying photographs give a visual complement to every poem with the incisive depth of its emotions.
Reading the collection I got the notion of wasteland and other poems by the famous master poet of all times, TS Eliot. Certainly Anirban is a master in his own right.