Writer's Review on BBC Two's brand-new family sitcom 'Mum'

BBC Two's brand-new family sitcom 'Mum' is a promising, performance packed series with the first episode showcasing fine elements of good screenplay techniques. In the strict sense, a tight screenplay can extend itself into a well-written full-fledged novel and vice-versa. Looking at writing screenplays as a precursor to writing a novel can help in getting the mechanics of writing in place way before it is fleshed out with descriptions.

The screenplay of 'Mum' does an excellent job at hooking the viewers to the complexities and idiosyncrasies of the characters by giving just a slight peep into their lives, enough to arouse curiosity. The protagonist, the mum, is trying to live through the funeral of her husband surrounded by her family. Her son, possibly slightly autistic, invites his overenthusiastic girlfriend for the funeral; her brother comes with his partner who is shown as a nasty prick, and the older bickering parents of her husband are also there to attend the funeral.

At one point, hints on son's possible disability, tension in brother's relationship with his partner, and mum's own feelings of loneliness are revealed to make the viewers look forward to the next episode.

This first episode could well become the first three chapters of a novel, slowly building momentum by trickling down drops of information about the characters through the medium of dialogue with no description beyond what the dialogue itself implies. The characters seem to know a lot more of what is going on in the story but the same is not conveyed to the reader or the viewer in this case. However, since the viewer or the reader feels a part of the family already, because of good characterisation, the audience would look forward to the second episode or the reader would continue to read the book. Teasing with trickles of information is a sure way to grab the attention of your viewer/reader. BBC's 'Mum' has done a good job at it and I am waiting for the next episode.

Writer's Book Review on Akhil Sharma's 'Family Life'

The objective of Writer's Book Review is to analyse a book from a writer's perspective to identify good writing techniques and possibly learn a few tricks of the trade.

'Family Life' by Akhil Sharma is quite an unconventional book when it comes to the traditional rules of plot development. The visible absence of a plot asks for expertise to make it a page-turner, which it is, undoubtedly. 'Family Life,' a story of an Indian immigrant family in America dealing with an unfortunate accident that leaves one of their two sons brain-damaged and invalid for life. The narrator, the younger son Ajay lives through trials he family undergoes and the author expertly captures the unassuming, yet poignant narrative of a child who would have happily settled for a normal life.

Usage of fewer dialogues helps in getting the reader pause and soak in the complexity of the situation the narrator finds himself in. The mother's dialogues are often complex sentences with more than two subordinate clauses, typically showing her as someone trying to think in her mother tongue and translating it to English. Later on in the book, you get to see the father do that too. It's interesting to observe the length of the dialogues between the second-generation immigrant (son) and the first-generation immigrants (parents).

The seemingly simple vocabulary, craftily used is another feather in the cap in 'Family Life'. It helps in increasing the pace of the novel since the plot has less scope to do it.

It was first published in the United States in 2014 by W.W.Norton & Co, Inc. Faber and Faber Limited published its UK edition in the same year. A good read for the weekend but be prepared to be soaked up into its complexities for the rest of the weeks to come. 'Family Life' by Akhil Sharma is a technically sound book.