Book Review: A Bollywood Romance

Reviewed by Elizabeth Zender

A powerful story celebrating love, culture, and the strength of women

The Hindu Festival of Lights, Diwali, is a time of good fortune. Paru’s hopes are high. After two years of clandestine courtship, she hopes her classmate, Harsha, will ask for her hand in marriage. He is handsome, in the right caste, and is nearly top of their class, second only to Paru. It would be a perfect match, like one of those Bollywood stories she loves so much.

But Paru’s brothers, Karan and Vivek, shame the family through their choices in brides, and the elders sever ties with Paru and her family as a result, casting them out of Brahmin society.

Enter Samar, a physician in the United States and the man who will be her next husband. Despite loving another, Paru must marry Samar to help her family get back in good graces. Fast-forward twenty years and Paru is a successful gynecologist and mother in the States. Samar, however, has not been a model husband and upends her life by leaving her for another woman. And Harsha, from all those years ago? He offers an opportunity for Paru to find love—but it comes with a great risk. She’ll have to choose between tradition or a real Bollywood romance.

Anu Koduri dedicates A Bollywood Romance to women who have been in Paru’s position: married to a stranger, sent to the United States, and trying to make the most of an incredibly challenging situation. It’s obvious why Paru would be treated with such love and care by the author. She is always seeking out ways to make her dreams come true even as she deals with a new culture, new husband, and new home.

A Bollywood Romance is an artfully crafted story about what a woman wants and what society allows a woman to want. Paru may be driven to keep herself safe and to achieve her dreams, but she also looks out for her family. The resilient women in this novel continue to find ways to cultivate and utilize power, individually and collectively.

Koduri’s story is rich in Hindu culture. The description and careful detail embedded in the telling of Diwali celebrations, the suitor interviews, and the caste system give the story a strong sense of authenticity. It’s an immersive cultural story heightened by the drama of familial relationships and the delights of Paru’s mind.

Drama, romance, and powerful women—A Bollywood Romance does not disappoint. It inspires.

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