The Krishna Key

Me "Have you read the narrative?"

Myself " Yeah ultimately"

Me "So what do you think about it?"

Myself "You see, there is a book called The Da Vinci Code that takes you thru a journey from Paris and back that tries to uncover a chilling truth guarded for years by a dedicated society. There is yet another story called The Lost Symbol that takes you similarly across DC racing against ruthless killer and the government to prove innocence. Finally there is the film Angels and Demons adapted from its book version that also tries to protect the Vatican from evil. All of these have some historical base with symbols playing a distinct role in unfolding the truth. So this story actually follows the same formula in an Indian perspective but gets lost in the obvious confusion in the later half and does not reach beyond bollywood drama finally."

Me "But it has been a bestseller."

Myself "That's what surprises me. Let's review its basic elements, shall we? The narrative contains stories in parallel. One of them is about Lord Krishna, The Eighth Incarnation Of Vishnu and The Mahabharatha, derived from the Hindi serial but is interestingly told and this part is fantastic. But when the parallel story runs it really becomes quickly boring with too many flashbacks and a supposed mystery that changes its colour too much. Also when friend becomes enemy romance also shifts place. There are hints of Freemason equivalents but are never justified correctly and all it seems that coincidences must have been inaccurately interpreted."

Me "Oh! Then why are we at all summarising like this?"

Myself "Just to show how irritating it can get when dialogues are used for describing events."

Chanakya's Chant

Interspersing past with the present, Ashwin Sanghi takes the reader in his quest to understand the intricacies of Arthasastra as composed by Chanakya, the shrewd Brahmin who emerged as the most famous kingmaker in the history of India. Driven by vengeance, Chanakya’s tactics to overthrow Dhanananda, unite Bharat under a single ruler and shield the country against foreign dominance will no doubt amaze the ordinary. Drawing parallel to the historic character, Sanghi develops an equally shrewd yet unassuming Gangasagar Misra as he evolves on his way to place his protégé Chandini Gupta as the PM of India. To this effect he stops at nothing and emerges as ruthless opportunist with a political cunning surpassing all the peers of the country. Though fast paced in the first quarter, the storyline clearly becomes over dramatic in the rest where Chanakya’s part remains gripping but Gangasagar becomes ordinary characterwise. At the start I thought we now have a Mario Puzo in Sanghi but my premonition was obliterated as the story progressed. One of the most important fallacies of the fiction part was that Gangasagar’s character evolution was rapid that seemed to catapult his maturity in the most convenient time rather than what would have been correct. His mentor in diplomacy, Agrawalji seemed unjustifiably to lose his cunning as the same matured in Gangasagar. Also the dramatic dialogues, more interesting for a Bollywood endeavour, became a mere repetition of style that compromised the seriousness that the plot demanded. But the most glaring problem, which I don’t know how the writer missed, was that Gangasagar did not have a clearly justified goal in his otherwise clearly defined mission. Chanakya was motivated by revenge and then came his dream of unification of the country. Puzo’s dons aspired to rule the criminal syndicates for business and security for their family. But Gangasagar seemed all of a sudden bent to make a female PM deriving inspiration from an age old rock craving allegedly attributed to Vishnugupta. For this he never wavered to kill the innocent who seemed inconvenient obstacle and placed all the evil men in his side to rule the country (of innocent?). So though a smooth reading material but the story as a whole remains a bit ordinary.