FLYING IN COLORS

The shadow of death looms over a girl’s life in this coming-of-age tale set in 1970s Chennai in Southern India.

Reddeppa’s debut follows an eventful year in Pavithra Ramachandran’s life as she negotiates the ups and downs of her intergenerational Tamil family. Beloved though Pavi is, her birth is always mentioned in the same breath as her maternal uncle Selva’s untimely death at 26, just a few months later. Pavi, who’s almost 9, feels a strong connection to Selva Uncle, and to Chanki, her paternal granduncle, who’s the black sheep of the family with a flair for storytelling. When a grieving relative lays the blame for Selva’s death on Pavi’s shoulders, saying that her birth came with a sign of a curse, Pavi’s actions set in motion a chain of events that lead to danger and unearth troubling family secrets. Strong-willed, impetuous Pavi is an intriguing character, though her words and actions sometimes feel much older than her years. The initially sunny narrative takes a dark turn and includes incidents with predatory men, threatened violence from an exorcist summoned to rid Pavi of her grief, and graphically described injuries resulting from her own rash actions. The plot sags in the second half but effectively tackles themes including unquestioning faith and the power of words to uplift or crush a child’s psyche.

A poignant, visceral story about superstition, unresolved grief, and the wounds they can inflict.