Chanakya's Chant is possibly India’s answer to Dan Brown..
:-) Ashwin Sanghi’s “Chanakya's Chant” is as engaging and intriguing as Kalki’s
“Ponniyin Selvan”, I am drawing a comparison only for the reason that both
being novels with historic reference.
The author’s uncanny ability to make every line exciting as well as
enlightening, make us contemplate if authors like Chetan Bhagat are much
overrated!!
The book runs two stories in parallel, one in 340 BC where
Chanakya, Chandragupta and how the two of them due to their efforts managed to
unify most of India under one king. Two,
story from modern Indian politics that of Pandit Gangasagar Mishra and his
protege Chandini Gupta. The narrative
keeps alternating between Chanakya’s efforts to make Chandragupta the emperor
of India and Pandit Mishra’s efforts to make Chandini the Prime Minister of
India.. The author switches between the
past and the present with ease and fluidity, both the stories mesh
together effortlessly.
Well, I am not quite sure how much liberty the author has
taken with respect to history, on the face of it looks like history has not
been mangled with, barring quite a few sub-plots and sub-stories that are too
farfetched to be true. Nonetheless the
book makes an excellent screenplay for an action paced thriller, came to know
that UTV had already acquired the movie rights for this book.
Chankya's Chant is
an eminently readable novel. Happy
reading..
Bottom line – War
is Politics with Blood, Politics is
war without blood.. Power has always
come at a price and the price as Chanakya points out is not just one’s emotions
but one’s conscience as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment