A decade ago I devoured the Immortals of Meluha series by Amish and obsessed over it for weeks. I was fascinated by how Amish took familiar characters from our scriptures and rewrote their story in fiction format. The Immortals of Meluha series, I believe, is still one of the most successful book franchises in Indian literature. There are also rumors of the series being adapted into movies with Ranveer Singh being cast in the lead role – and that would be something to definitely look forward to.
The Ramayana series that follows the Meluha series, however, did not invoke the same fascination in me; either because its not on the same scale of writing or simply because I’ve outgrown Amish’s approach to storytelling. The Meluha series centres around the character based on Lord Shiva and a story that traces his rise to greatness. Stating from memory, the three books explore some complex philosophies that I still remember well. The Ramayana series, I’m pretty sure, was intended to be on the same scale of profundity and complexity but falls short by a large margin.
‘Ram – The Scion of Ikshvaku’: First book in Amish’s Ramayana series
‘Ram’ is the same idealistic character that we know of in the first book of the series as well; but his story unfolds in new ways and that’s undeniably curious. That is Amish’s signature style after all. The story is set in the same plots that the Ramayana unfolds and involves the same familiar characters – but the tale is completely different and fully fictional. I do love the idea of it because it would be a difficult challenge to reimagine what we’ve learnt so deeply since childhood – Ramayana is after all a massive part of Indian culture and folklore. However, I couldn’t help but wonder if Amish aimed for greater depth in the novel than what he has achieved because he touches upon many principles of governance, social modality and the conflict between law and justice. I particularly liked the exploration of the feminine vs masculine social order models discussed in context to the Asuras and the Devas; yet, to me, Amish seems to have missed the mark of philosophical profundity that would be expected from a book like this. If he intended to narrate a different story of the characters from Ramayana, then that is something he has well achieved. But I went in with the memory of Immortals of Meluha and was actually quite disappointed. It might also be the case that Ramayana has been explored so much in the creative world that it has turned into a much bigger challenge for writers and film makers to present a convincing version of it. Reimagining the Ramayana is inherently trickier than the Shiva Trilogy because the cultural and emotional blueprints of Ram’s life are deeply entrenched in the collective psyche. Regardless, Amish had the advantage of fictional narrative in his hand and he has somehow not leveraged it well enough with this one.
Indian authors – specifically Indian English authors – experimenting with scriptures is something I haven’t been on board with because I am yet to come across a work of literature that delivers justice to their scope. Amish’s Ramayana series is extremely respectful and considerate towards the original scriptures though. He’s not trying to humanize or fit-to-modern-context the characters that are derived from stories of millennia ago. In that regard, Amish is a well-thought and articulate writer whom I admire. And so, even though I didn’t love the Ramayana series as much as the Meluha one, I’m glad I explored the new lanes through which the familiar characters were taken in this book. Perhaps the next books in the series will elevate the experience.
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