If you love vermillion, Timeless Kathmandu gives you plenty of it, but the city is about so much more. Dinesh Shrestha in his book presents Kathmandu through a myriad of vivid and colourful postcard perfect photographs. The city with its heady mix of history, culture, religion and people is an exciting draw for tourists, and the photographer through his lens tries to capture that character; the essence and the flavour of Kathmandu that makes it what it is.

One gripe that you may feel going through the pages of Timeless Kathmandu is that you would expect a lot more from the photographer than just his access to, and the subsequent capture of the subject. The variety of themes and the array of subjects bears witness to the effort that has gone behind compiling this picture book, but most photos lose significance by being monotonous, bordering on bland: colourful, well-lit and a large depth of field.

More can often be less, and unfortunately in Timeless Kathmandu, the rare few gems are obscured amidst the tumult of the regular postcard fare. The clutter of standard fare does not do justice to the photographer and his skills. While the photographs themselves are technically sound the images do appear cliched.

Kathmandu as a subject is indeed too vast to capture effectively in a book, and Timeless Kathmandu is a notable effort. It however, does leave you unfulfilled and craving for more, or perhaps for less, but better and more creative fare.

Reviewed by Vikash Pradhan, cash0612[at]gmail[dot]com