My So-Called Bollywood Life by Nisha Sharma (BEDM)

Hello all! It’s Blog Every Day in May (BEDM) and we are going to be joining the trend. However, slight difference – we may blog every other day in May as this crept up on us and we are both very busy eggs! Let’s see how we do though – I’m definitely making the effort to try and write as many posts this month as I can. I’ve been feeling pretty inspired to write recently which has been fab so I’m going to take advantage of that. Anyway! First BEDM post is a review of My So-Called Bollywood Life by Nisha Sharma, which is released in the UK tomorrow! 

I picked up the ARC of this book at the Stripes Equali-tea event we were invited to in January. It had been on my wish list anyway so it was great to get the ARC here – plus the cover is really pretty. Thanks to Stripes for this book!

The story follows Winnie, a 17 year old girl with a passion for films, particularly Bollywood films. She is going through a difficult patch in terms of her relationship and finds herself caught between a boy and her prophecy. She is unsure of her destiny but she does know that the thing she wants most in life is to be a film critic.

I loved how fun the book was – Winnie’s over dramatic self was fantastic. She was a really funny character with a lot of heart and a penchant for drama and over-reacting (but in the best way possible). The storyline didn’t feel super realistic in terms of a lot of the more extravagant things happening (e.g. Gurinda Chadha, the scale of the film festival) however I’m British and I feel our schools have way less cool extra curricular societies/activities and we don’t have as big of a focus on them. It felt more like a university in this way.

The characters had really bright and interesting personalities. My personal favourites were Winnie’s dad and Bridget. Her dad wasn’t heavily featured but whenever he was in a scene I feel like he made such an impact. He was quietly funny and made great comments throughout. He was also super supportive of Winnie. Bridget was the same in terms of support. She always helped Winnie even when she wasn’t completely sure her actions were the best to take. Their friendship was so wholesome and really relatable. They constantly facetimed each other which is such a small thing that I really loved – they were barely ever apart!

I did find that this book felt (for me) a little young and maybe too outrageous with some of the antics. It didn’t feel super realistic and although I do think this is because it was meant to be like a traditional Bollywood film like Winnie spoke about, I don’t know how I felt about it. I also wasn’t fully into some aspects of the storyline, particularly the romance. I found it a bit too predictable and just didn’t have any strong feelings towards it.

However, a book with a main theme of filmmaking/films! This is my favourite thing. I’m a filmmaker too and I love reading books set around someone having a passion for film or something similar. It’s cool to read something and relate to it on that high a level of interest. I also really want to watch more Bollywood films so this has been great to compile a list!

I would definitely recommend giving this a read! It’s worth it for the fun and also for the Bollywood references – I can’t wait to give so many of the films mentioned a watch. Also, if you’re thinking of buying it, check out the cover because it’s stunning.