Title : Mahabharatee
Author : Shruti Hajirnis Gupte
Genre : Mythological Fiction ; Hindu Mythology
Pages : 201
I received this Review Copy from the author of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you Shruti Hajirnis Gupte for this beautiful copy!!
Blurb
For the last time Draupadi throws a glance at her untied tresses; for the last time she looks into the eyes that have become bright with unshed tears. These eyes have been chasing vengeance like a hunter follows a spoor. She raises her index finger and points it towards her mirror image. She shouts – “I will ensure that a war must happen.”
While the stars are growing dim in the pre-dawn sky, the matriarch of Kuru dynasty – Satyavati — arrives on the battlefield of Kurukshetra to hold a discussion with Kunti, Gandhari, Draupadi and Rukmini. She is determined to bring a peaceful settlement to prevent the war in her dynasty. On the other hand, Draupadi, burning in the fire of revenge for last thirteen years desperately wants this war to happen. While the court is divided in two amongst the women of Kuru dynasty, Rukmini joins the discussion. Along with her, she brings a new perspective.
Could the discussion between the five women change the course of Mahabharata?
Review
Shruti Hajirnis Gupte had approached the great epic of Mahabharata from the feminist viewpoint and that’s why she had rightly named it as Mahabharatee. Though it says Mahabharatee, the author didn’t retell the entire epic altogether. This book particularly focuses on the moments before the dawn of the Kurukshetra war and the discussion taking place between the five important women of the epic, namely Satyavati, Draupati, Kunti, Gandhari and Rukmini.
So first of all, this feminist perceptive of any Indian Mythology should be highly appreciated because the voices of the women of these epics are usually overlooked. And when contemporary authors like Shruti or Chitra Banerjee or Kavita Kane gives voices to these interesting characters, that’s like, one of the best feelings you will ever experience as a reader.
This approach made by the author was very different from all the other interpretation made to the Mahabharata. The whole idea of the book seemed anew and interesting. Firstly because bringing in all the strong and important female characters of Mahabharata into one single frame, I don’t think anybody has ever done that. And secondly, the way in which the author had materialized the idea and written it down. The writing of Shruti Hajirnis was very poetic and compelling, certain phrases in the book was extremely appealing and highlight worthy. The language skill of the author was also very good. And how the author had put forward her thoughts about the precedings of the war was magnificent.
However, as the book move forward, it mildly felt like the author had lost track of the intention behind the book. After the first half, it doesn’t seem like the book was moving anywhere, it was like standing in a still water without any current or commotion. So that was mildly disappointing. That was mainly because the first half of the book was absolutely stunning and exceptional but the second half felt disconnected and was overtly philosophical. Towards the end and all, the philosophical part felt absolutely redundant and the points stated there was very confusing and this could’ve been avoided.
At a point of time, each character starts pointing out others shortcomings and mistakes and start questioning each other’s actions from the past. These questions were point-blank and sharp but whereas the answers given by the respective characters to defend their actions wasn’t that great or satisfactory. The book would’ve been great if the answers were even more convincing. So, at this particular point the author had failed to plant a seed of empathy in the readers hearts.
The idea of representing the five women of the book to the five elements of life was really nice and how the author had matched these elements with these women’s characteristic was pretty impressive. But when the characters start appreciating each other despite the circumstances relatively felt artificial and kind of forced. Throughout the book, the author was able to persuade the readers into staying inside the plot and believing in it despite a few minor shortcomings here and there.
And one of the best thing about this book was the author made sure that the readers juggle between “wanting to have a war and not wanting to have war” every now and then. For example, when you read Draupadi’s perspective you will be like revenge is the only answer and when you read Satyavati’s you will be like the entire idea of the war was pointless. And that confusion induced on the reader’s mind was the key factor for the success of the book because it’s pretty difficult to make the readers feel all the things at once.
On the whole, Mahabharatee was written very efficiently and impressively. The idea and plot-line was unique but to be very frank, the author wasn’t able to match the exceptional first half with the second.
My Views
I have pretty much stopped reading Hindu Mythology for quite some months for no reasons in particular and when this book came my way I wasn’t sure will I be able to enjoy it or not. But then I read it and my appetite for Hindu Mythology resurfaced yet again. So now I wanted to read more mythologies and I’m in search of more books. And I think that’s the best thing a book can do to you.
It was a very short book with around 200 pages and I don’t how I flew through the book, it so fast moving. And I also liked the ending where Satiyavati revealed something which I have never thought of in that angle ever before and I was like “Damn man! She is so clever”
My rating for this book would be 3 out of 5 stars
I would recommend this book to all the Hindu Mythology lovers, you guys will like it. I wouldn’t recommend this book to you if you have zero knowledge about The Mahabharata mainly because Mahabharatee is something like an excerpt from the epic and it’s not total detailed retelling. So you wouldn’t understand it, if you don’t know the basic story-line. So, what I would recommend is read something other Mahabharata retelling book or ask you parents or grandparents for a basic story-line or watch the series, that would be really useful.
What’s one good thing about Mahabharata and Ramayana is that they have lot of characters, character dimensions, each character has a handful of backstories and those backstories have their own backstories. Uffff!! It’s one hell of a great story, so my point is even if you know the whole story, that wouldn’t spoil your experience in reading these plethora of interpretation written by contemporary authors. Because these epics gives space for a lot interpretation and I love interpretations!!
PS : Thank you so much Shruti Hajirnis Gupte for sending me the physical copy of this book despite the pandemic situation. It means a lot. And technically, this is my first ever physical review copy (which arrived several months later than all the other review copies but I still consider this as my first authentic physical review copy) and for that matter this book will remain very special to me forever. The book looked so nice and quality of the book was great and I cannot stop myself from adoring it day in and day out. Thank you so much Shruti once again.
So, here’s the link to buy this book people!!
Do read this book and tell me how you feel about it!!!
Happy Reading Folks!!
~ Meenu
