Tuesday, August 21, 2007

A pick among great sagas

As I pause at the 330th page of Book1 of Ashok Banker’s adaptation of The Ramayana, I am amazed to find that a single day of Rama’s life is vividly brought to life in 330 pages of this 550-paged tome. Banker’s story-telling is full of colorful imagery, mental picture of different sounds and presenting the seers and kings without making them appear as caricatures.

This old mythological tale is packaged to suit the literary tastes of the current generation of fantasy-fiction lovers without dwelling on it’s religious elements.
Banker banks on the strength of this epic saga leading us along the main arteries of the story without getting lost in the by-lanes of the minor tales this epic abounds in.


He presents an ensemble of philosophy, action, rivalry and jealousy interweaving it with petty quarrels and mundane conversations.
But I thought the language could have been better than what appears to be school-bookish.
Can’t help but pick nits, what was ‘Harishchandra Avenue’, PFs, the Dark Lord??? Wasn’t it supposed to be set in the 4th century BC !!

Inspite of this, I do not deny that this is an interesting read, wonder if it can be sustained to complete the entire series of the 7 books.
I suddenly morph into a 5 year old sitting on my mother’s lap and listening to this amazing story of good vs evil.

3 comments:

Crouching Tigress said...

Rama is so boring. Really. I prefer Krishna..what a colourful character.

Swathi Sambhani aka Chimera said...

@c. tigress
Krishna - the mythological casanova :0

mystic rose said...

I had been so wanting to read this book. Thanks for reminding me :). Also, thanks for the link to Yann Martel's site. Interesting.

and ha ha. just read the above comments : There's a charm about them both. I would prefer someone like Rama for a husband, a brother or a son, even a friend. and someone like Krishna for a lover or a friend. no ? :)
ummm... what does that make me though? sigh.