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Purity of emotion — whether it expresses the deeply felt
ardour of Nikilesh Mitra, one of the chief protagonists of the
tale, for the tempestuous stage actress Ruth or it depicts the
agonies of the hermaphrodite Pooran Miyan — runs like a fine
thread throughout the novel that spans over half a century. The
book talks of love and lust under the neon lights and
subsequently of the years of deprivation and loss during the
World Wars. Beyond All Heavens depicts in an evocative manner
the orthodox mores of Indian society, the unquestioned
superiority of the male in its social fabric, the subsequent
dawn of a new era of more broadminded views at the end of the
19th century and the beginning of the 20th. which witnessed
violence, bloodshed and misery of unparalleled proportions and
unassuagable grief. It is a story of the ruthless butchering of
the mighty India and its mindless division into India and
Pakistan, of the heroic actions of its patriotic sons and
daughters for whom no sacrifice was too great, no punishment too
painful to bear in their courageous fight for freedom.
It is against such
a backdrop that Beyond All Heavens develops into a
compelling tale. As the delicate and intelligent Nalini and her
strong-minded husband Nibaran Mitra prepare to send their only
beloved child, Nikilesh to London for further studies, none can
foresee how unexpected events will influence his future. How
destiny in the form of the ravishing Ruth Lavine will beckon and
transform Nikilesh from a callow, inexperienced youth only just
beginning to feel the first stirrings of emotion for the
beautiful Damini he leaves behind, into a passionate and
fulfilled lover. Nikilesh is a caring and responsible man who is
determined to put the stamp of respectability on their
relationship by offering Ruth marriage. Alas! destiny urgently
summons Nikilesh to his mother’s deathbed in distant India,
from where he never returns, drawn as he is into the vortex of
events preceding India’s Independence. But ultimately it is a
deep spirituality which transforms the adult Nikilesh into a
savant, and gives him peace of mind. Unknown to him Ruth,
pregnant with his unborn child and devastated by his failure to
return, gives birth to a son, Mark, who she leaves with her
unmarried sister. Mark finally succumbs to his injuries in World
War I but not before he has impregnated his lover. Maya, his
daughter born posthumously, predictably comes across a pamphlet
with a riveting spiritual message by Swami Nityanand on the
underground in London. She comes to India in 1947 when the whole
country is ablaze with communal violence, and a series of events
leads her, once again predictably, to sage Niyanand in the last
days of his life. That father and daughter are ultimately
reunited gives one a great sense of peace. That the author
transports the reader into vastly different scenarios of two
distant lands inextricably linked by destiny, with commendable
literary panache, deserves kudos. But one wonders, albeit a
trifle wistfully, could there have been an equally satisfying
finale sans the predictability, a different twist to the tale
which could have elevated Beyond All Heavens to greater
heights? May be.
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JAYABRATO
Chatterjee spins "a spellbinding saga about the enormous pain
of grief and the tender violence of love" in Beyond All
Heavens. Woven on the loom of imagination, with the multihued
skeins of powerful passion, poignantly delineated cultural nuances,
literary finesse and sensitivity, it tugs at the heartstrings and
floods the mind with a compelling beauty that draws the reader ever
so gently into the very heart of the tale. Perhaps the author was
inspired by the
