Benign Flame: Saga of Love

Roopa marries Sathyam, hoping that he would help her become a doctor but as he fails her, feeling used by him, she insensibly seeks lesbian solace in her friend Sandhya's embrace.

Soon, in a dramatic sequence of events, Tara, a suave call girl, tries to rope in Roopa into her calling; Roopa herself loses her heart to Sandhya's beau Raja Rao, and Prasad, her husband's friend falls for her. And as Prasad begins to induce her husband to be seduced by whores, to worm his way into her affections, Roopa finds herself in a dilemma.

But as fate puts Raja Rao into Roopa's arms in such a way as to lend novelty to fiction, this 'novel' nuances man-woman chemistry on one hand, and portrays woman-woman empathy on the other.

Who said the novel is dead; 'Benign Flame' raises the bar as vouched by -

The plot is quite effective and it's a refreshing surprise to discover that the story will not trace a fall into disaster for Roopa, given that many writers might have habitually followed that course with a wife who strays into extramarital affairs - Spencer Critchley, Literary Critic, U.S.A.

The author has convinced the readers that love is something far beyond the marriage tie and the fulfillment of love can be attained without marriage bondage. The author has achieved a minor revolution without any paraphernalia of revolution in the fourth part of the novel - The Quest, India.

The author makes free use of - not interior monologue as such, but - interior dialogue of the character with the self, almost resembling the dramatic monologue of Browning. Roopa, Sandhya, Raja Rao and Prasad to a considerable extent and Tara and Sathyam to a limited degree indulge in rationalization, trying to analyse their drives and impulses - The Journal of Indian Writing in English.