1865th BLOG POST
27th Book of 2020!
Well, Amish Tripathi is one of
the writers who have been associated with Indian mythology till now as he has
written books on Lord Shiva and Lord Ram but if you have been going through his
interviews, you must be aware about the kind of knowledge he has about Indian
history too. Hence, the announcement of the book “Legend of Suheldev” came all
of a sudden but it brought smile on my face as I always want Amish to write as
much as possible because he writes really well and his stories have an
emotional connect with the audiences. This time, Amish has written the book
with the help of “An Immortal Writers’ Center” that he has developed who write
it first and then it is being proofread and edited by Amish in order to ensure
that the readers feel the same magic of Amish’s writing even while reading the
books written in this collaboration. This is done so that Amish can share many
such stories with audiences in his lifetime.
“Legend of Suheldev”- the book is
of around 325+ pages which comes with a tagline of “The King who saved India”.
This is a story based in 1025 AD and therefore, the story is a perfect combo to
have Amish writing it. King Suheldev has been one of the historical figures who
has been used by several political parties in fetching votes but if you would
want to know about him, there is not much available to read. Amish has used his
fictional imagination to write his story based on whatever true details he got
from the history. In that sense, he got a good creative liberty to play with
and I believe, it has been utilized very well to write a story which is
powerful, patriotic, energetic, enthusiastic, terrific and what not. India has
been invaded multiple times by Turks in the history and how King Suheldev takes
a pledge of fighting against them to save his country is what basically
summarizes the plot of this book.
The Battle of Bahraich that took
place between King Suheldev and Salar Maqsud – the Turkish commander of
Muhammad Ghazni is what this book basically covers keeping aside all the other
stories in which few of the characters mentioned in this book are associated
with – I am sure Amish shall write about them someday too. I liked how each and
every character is given due importance rather than only talking about King
Suheldev. Once again, Amish mentions Lord Shiva in his book very prominently
which adds value to the story as it connects both- history and religious
beliefs together to make it more valour and contemporary. The situations are
written in such a way that you shall be able to correlate them with current
situations and understand, where, we, as Indians, are failing.
The weapon of Amish is his
philosophies which he uses to make his readers fall in love with his writings
which is amply used in this story. Few instances such as the conversation
between Chandrakirti and Ashvaghosh in the monastery which is their entry scene
- talks about violence and non-violence. Similarly, the debate between
Ashvaghosh and Abdul on Religion vs Patriotism is a masterpiece according to
me. A detail conversational part between Govardhan and Kashinath talks about
Hindu’s beliefs vs Muslim beliefs which is another contemporary subject out of
which we can learn and adapt a lot of things. I like how Indian and Hindu
culture from the 1st millennium is displayed freely telling what
kind of great souls lived then who saved our country from barbaric invaders.
The war and fighting scenes are
very well written – I was almost able to imagine all of them happening in front
of me and felt like watching a Bhansali or Baahubali kind of a movie in my
mind. The book also has few twists and turns which keeps you interested with
the pace of the story. Also, I must say that Amish carries romance as well as
he covers epics, mythologies, historical fiction – the chemistry between
Suheldev and Toshani is very beautifully handled in this book keeping the
respect and aura of the characters in consideration. Overall, this book gives
us very great lessons about how we, as Indians, keep on fighting among
ourselves which gives the outsiders, neighbours and invaders power to defeat
us. If we can unite, we can defeat any power in the world. Kudos to Author
Amish for portraying the concept wonderfully.
Now, talking about the drawbacks –
I must say that I felt Amish to be writing very frankly on how a Hindu leader
would be – I am very much impressed as he didn’t try to mince things there –
but then showing him having Muslim as his close aid and trusting other Muslim
who tried to get into his group from Turkish side seems to be an attempt in
trying to show the King Suheldev as a secular king which I don’t know how true
it is considering that there is so much angst between both the religions even
now in the 2nd millennium. Also, I felt that few scenes are
described too much which makes you skip sentences in between as you know they
aren’t adding up anything to the story. Another problem that I face while
reading is the way terms are used between the characters in the conversation –
it is as if the characters of today are talking in a modern style. I believe
the book should reflect the ancient history even with each word and sentence of
the book – that is what had made The Shiva Trilogy so popular. Lastly, I
believe many scenes where the protagonist has to act like a hero has been
portrayed like a Bollywood scene rather than a real world. There should be
difference in way books are written and movie scripts are drafted- I hope the
Immortal Writers’ centre understands that.
Overall, “Legend of Suheldev” is
one book that I’ll keep recommending to the people as there are so many
anti-nationalistic voices these days that such stories speaking about hyper-nationalism,
religious beliefs and Indian history needs to be promoted. This is one of the
powerful books I have read which actually made me go back to that world and
contribute myself. I give this book 4.5* out of 5.
Thanks.
WRITING BUDDHA
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