One of the early memories of my child hood is reading Amar Chitra Katha. An illustrated comics which tells the stories of valor and righteousness and victory of good over evil. The makers of this comics found that Indian mythology is more profitable to market that various flying strong men who wear undies over pants in India. We read tales from Mahabharatha and Ravana, fashioned bows and arrows after our hero Ram & Arjun and shot them at imaginary Ravana or at our friends and siblings. The blockbuster TV shows of the 90's too were the stories of these two epics and all our festivals were in honor of these mythical heroes or if I may, the Gods. We did not even spare a moment to empathize with Duryodhanan who wanted to rule the land after his father or with Bali, who was sniped when battling his brother. We did hate Ravanan and his ferocious Asura followers without considering his insult when his assaulted and bleeding sister came wailing to the court. We loved the tall, fair, horse riding, soft speaking, hard hitting Devas and their chieftains.
I consider these epics as excellent literature works that showed the rich imagination and forethought of the respective authors. To talk about a flying machine when you are busy hitting each other with a femur is an achievement by itself. Sometime down the lane someone took these books too seriously , incorporated religion and provided it with a Godly aura. Many interpretations of these epics exists but most of them are too much philosophical jargon which a mortal like me can't fathom. Then came Anand Neelakandan's Asura - Tale of the vanquished.
I had seen this book many time at stores, both online and on shelves and felt curious how can one justify arguably the most evil literary villain ever? The one who went on a rampage through all three worlds, who shamelessly abducted another mans wife, have done atrocities against the pious and the godly men and even sent his son Indrajith to attack and sack the abode of Gods. Well Anand Neelakandan just humanizes Ravanan in the book. He speaks of Ravanan as a man who through hardships and effort rises to be the king of Lanka and launches a military campaign to subdue his quarrelsome neighbors. Ravana is painted as a man of many skills and even more faults. In my favourate, passage of the book, Mahabali, an exile Asura king tutoring Ravanan the need to forgo all his emotions, despair, prejudices and fears to conquer himself to be above human nature and be the greatest Emperor the world have seen and be the face that reflects all but shows nothing. Ravanan promptly replies that it is those emotions which makes a man and he would gladly live and die as a true man rather than hide behind an indifferent veil. He would proudly display all ten of those emotions which his mentor advised him to shun earning him the name Dashamukha.
The narration of the book is done from Ravanan's perspective and from that of Bhadra, a lowly foot soldier. I found Bhadra's character to be more compelling than Ravanans. In every other sword and sandal book I have read, foot soldiers just drink, rape, kill and be killed. But in this one, we see the life of a soldier and how the actions of high and mighty affect the peasants. We witness what drive the cowardly man to be a soldier, his family life and the turmoil he faces. Bhadra is a devoted follower of Ravanan but hates him with equal fervor throughout the book. The life of these two characters are intertwined and make the book a complex yet thoroughly entertaing one. Anand Neelaknadan has taken the epic, rotated it 180 and made a blockbuster out of it. He does capitalises on dormant Dravida (South Indian) emotions to sell the book and to strike a chord with his aimed readers. The book may be a bit uncomfortable to two group of people, one the ultra conservative Hindus and two the general population who doesn't belong to the Dravida family. If you could keep aside your prejudice and read the book with an open mind, you will agree with me as Anand Neelakandan is in par or a cut above Amish & co.
"Ravana sees himself as the epitome of a complete human being; So, Rama may be seen as God but Ravana is the more complete man" - This is the one line that hooked me into the novel and I am glad that I read it.
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