Why you should not let Amish Tripathi ruin the legends for you

I haven’t read a lot of books lately but the one that I did last was Amish’s Raavan — Enemy of Aryavarta. Frankly, I am not fond of Amish’s books because of his writing, but since there was a lot of hype around at the time of the launch of the book, I decided to give it a read. But Amish, without fail like his first time, when he wrote Meluha, disappointed me again.

Though Raavan is his third book in a multi-linear narrative series after Ram — Scion of Ikshvaku, and Sita — Warrior of Mithila, it jeopardized my chances to relate with the ginormous villain that Raavan is in Raamayan. There is no doubt that this is a well-researched book, but the writer fails in converting it into a gripping story.

As oppose to Amish, there is another writer in the same genre, whose work I greatly admire. Ashwin Sanghi is a writer, whose stories are rooted in the contemporary world that fits so well that it takes the reader in a different world altogether. However, it doesn’t mean that Amish is a bad writer, but his books are filled with incidents that are contradictory in nature. For example, he displays an exemplary courage when flees his father’s house with his mother, newly-born baby brother, and uncle Mareech. For me, I would like to know what was Raavan thinking when he did what he did. Unless you do that, it doesn’t engage me as a reader.

But Amish, without giving any reasons, show us a picture where he is just plain cold to his own mother and being a dick to uncle Mareech. On the one hand, Amish paints Raavan as a loving brother to Kumbhakarana, but the question that just bothers me so much to read further is the reason why Raavan is so resentful towards his mother or Mareech. The book’s illustrations about how sharp, learned and brilliant Raavan was in whichever studies he pursued in his life, are most riveting. For example, from the time when he was a kid and he tries to cut open a live rabbit to see how his heart is racing in the moment of panic when it is facing death is brilliantly written.

Or his display of valor in the moment when he is facing death when Krakachabahu’s soldiers run after Raavan to kill him after the heist. All these scenes are commendable but what doesn’t go down well with me is the unnecessary arrogance that Raavan displays to his closed ones including his mother and uncle without even taking any of their suggestions into consideration.

The same criticism I have about his first book, The Immortals of Meluha, where he gives a good opening to the story of Shiva that he lives with his tribe in the high hills of Tibet near Maansarovar, and smokes weed. But then he had to leave the land and migrate with his tribe to Kashmir for the well being of his people. And then he works his charm to lure Sati, nonsense.

From the stories and legends, we know Shiva as a man who is beyond definition. He is the kind who lives and enjoys the company of those he had left in Mansarovar. He wouldn’t leave Mansarovar fearing the loss of his loved ones, because he doesn’t live in that mindset. He neither loves, nor does he hate anyone. He is all encompassing, compassionate and fearsome, destroyer yet nurturing, self-sufficient, self-sustainable, hunter and what not. And so, Amish who wrote books on such a man, as per me, doesn’t do justice in bringing all the qualities Shiva is known for, in his book.

Thus far Amish has written on characters that are so larger than life, but he fails in giving wings to the characters he chooses. Every time that I have read him, I wonder if something magnificent is going to come from this, but in that moment, he leaves the reader cold and dry. He fails in giving wings to his imagination and therefore, what could have come up as a nuanced story as to why Raavan was the way he was, or why Shiva was the way he was, and various other characters the way they were — take the bullet and die out.

On the contrary, writers like Sanghi and Pattanaik write with a clear mind and that is why perhaps Krishna Key came out the way it came out. Sanghi’s Krishna Key is a beautifully written book that slips in contemporary life. It throws us out in the middle of a nail-biting conspiracy of a quest that is par excellence of all of Amish’s books put together. And therefore, I have decided that I will not let Amish spoil the stories for me.