Author: Anand Neelakantan
Publisher: platinum Press.
ISBN: 978-93-817577-05-2
First time author Anand Neelakantan, treads the murky waters of telling the tale of the Ravana, here neither Rama nor Ravana are heroes, Ravana is the protagonist.
The book is a fiction based on the stock characters from Ramayana. The tale is narrated through the Ravana and Bhadra an asura who is positioned as the darker side of Ravana. Ravana is a wannabe idealistic hero, but in Anand’s tale he is neither the personification of evil as pictured by Tulsidas nor he is the well-educated non-Aryan leader of the Jain and Buddhist tales, neither is the heroic uddata nayaka of southern folklore, Ravana here appears as a whining, looser.
The story is well presented, and the book is quite difficult to put down. The last three chapters do drag a bit.
Over all a good book.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Anand Neelakantan is first time author. Growing up in the temple surroundings at Kerala Ramayana fascinated Anand more so the anti-hero Ravana and his magical land. An Engineer with Indian Oil corporation lives at Bangalore with his wife Aparna daughter Ananya and son Abhinav.
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