Book of Book Reviews

The Great Indian Novel by Dr. Shashi Tharoor

In a satirical retelling of what is arguably one of, if not the, greatest stories of all time, Shashi Tharoor has given his master-class. The book is what it says it is, the Great Indian Novel, or the Mahabharata. It’s the Epic retold in the context of the Indian Freedom Movement and a score and decade which follows it. The author presents an amalgamation of fact and fiction so homogenous, that at a point, it gets scary.
Tharoor, in what is his, in his own words, ‘homage to the epic’ appears well versed and researched and offers reasonable arguments as to his standings. His writing is, as always, full of off-hand humour, wit and a ‘je ne sais qui’ which makes the book read like a poem.
The entire battalion of magnate is accounted for, portrayed and contrasted beautifully, with Bheeshma Pitamah as Gandhiji, (named Gangaji. which is by far one of the most beautiful allusions considering the irony), Dhritarashtra as Nehru, Pandu as Netaji, Dharmraj Yudhistr as Morarji Desai, Arjun as what I felt was the personification of the new found voice of the people, Krishna as Krishna Menon, alluded to AK Gopalan… as complex as the characters seem, as they should be given the theme, they have been written with boldness and to any aware reader, the realisations are, as I said, scary.
About the writing style of the book, with Draupadi baptized D’Mokrasi, Bengali anagrammed Gelabin, Manimir as Kashmir (if you don’t get it, I pity you), Chakra and Snoop-ing for China and Peaking (not Duck) among the multitudinous wordplay, I would say it is… okay?

Tharoor has used his arrows of language and verbatim brilliantly. It’s light and funny, and complex and philosophical on an as-needed basis.

After reading this work of his, I have a new-found respect for who is, I like to think, the Diplomat-in-Chief of India
The Great Indian Novel should be read by all, the enthusiasts of the modern history of India, the students and zealots of the Epic, lovers of a well written book and those who are hip and don’t identify themselves as and under any of those cadres, seriously, this is a #YOLO, bookstagram read.
What I personally liked the most about this definitive read, is the way it manages to explain history on the basis of history, and I didn’t identify which history explained which one because it really works both ways. For example, in my opinion, the Kashmir issue has been talked about, alluded to and in general, presented in this narration beautifully, and clears much doubts regarding what actually happened, in the same flow, the ending of the Mahabharata, which again, to me earlier seemed a bit puzzling, after reading Tharoor’s rendition has given a much needed insight and a better understanding of the matter. Further, the actual “end” (apologies for using quotation marks for emphasis) of the script is every bit brainy, intelligent and bright as you’d expect it to be.
Given, mid narration, the exposition from one character’s story to another gets a bit arduous to keep up with, but weighing that, against the sheer non-platitude of the substance, I doubt if it could be condensed, clarified and catered better.
If I am to nitpick the flaws I can do it, but again, relatively they won’t matter as much against the relevance of the contents of this publication.
In conclusion, in one of his defining works, Tharoor shines as bright as Krishna’s smile. The book is decorated with gleaming reviews by tout le monde inclusive of Khushwant Singh, the Financial Times and the Hindu. It is past its 50th edition in publishing and is indeed a brilliant concoction of myth and material.