‘Kaaya’: A carefully, if haphazardly, stitched novel about body as a site of desire and violence
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On the InstagramReality subreddit, where influencers’ pictures are scrutinised for editing and plastic surgery, there is a provision to file posts under “Uncanny Valley”. This category abounds with too-big lips, too-small chins, and too-high cheekbones; users find these unsettling because the features bypass conventions of desirability, and the faces bypass – even if slightly – the realm of the human and natural.
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Kaayaa, Guruprasad Kaginele’s fourth novel, is preoccupied with similar ideas. Where is the line between the beautiful and the grotesque? The desired and the disfigured? Between two of its protagonists, Malik (a plastic surgeon) and Kasturi (a senator), these polarities take shape in physical, cultural, political, and relational contexts. What emerges is a story marked by the uncanny: where characters slip from our grasp the more we learn about them, and language itself, thanks to Narayan Shankaran’s translation, alienates as much as it explains.
Becoming someone else
The novel follows Dr Malakheda, his wife Shamanthaka, his mother-in-law Kasturi, and his ex-wife Parimala through their lives in Manhattan, where they are known as Malik, Samantha, HIV Kasturi, and Pari respectively. Malik is sued for sexual misconduct during a breast augmentation surgery – this lawsuit threatens both him and Kasturi, whose fame comes from her miraculous...