HYDERABAD: Over the past couple years, bookstores across the city have increasingly been lining up their shelves with mythological thrillers by Indian authors. For now, it seems that the trend of reading mythological genre has attracted crowds to explore the imaginative re-interpretation of the age old epics. With social media updates on every new novel in the market, content is no longer a constraint.
And the trend seems to spell good times for the upcoming prolific Indian authors like Ashwin Sanghi, Kavita Kane, Anand Neelakantan, Anant Pai, whose research to weave a plot with both mythology and suspense appears to have captivated the readers.
“What Chetan Bhagat is to modern Indian English writing, Amish Tripathy is to Indian mythological novels. We have seen so many authors coming up with mythological novels just to replicate Amish’s tremendous success with the Meluhas. I do like the genre, up to a certain extent,” says Bastab Chakraborthy, a software Engineer at Tata Consultancy Services and the owner of Between the Lines website.
Novels like ‘Karna’s Wife’ and ‘The Palace of Illusions’ told from the perspective of the protagonist not only narrate the most important aspects of Mahabharata but also bring out the Indian flavour of fantasy which include detailed character sketches of Uruvi and Draupadi from the epic.
Kavita Kane, the author of ‘Karna’s Wife’ says, “Epics are a huge canvas of human psychology. The most remarkable part is that we identify the characters in our daily lives. The response for the genre is huge, especially from the youth. It’s not the black and white areas of a character, but the shades of grey that interest readers. Mythology has always been a part of our education and entertainment. It is the perspective of the protagonist that matters the most. Mythology gives a larger-than-life image and proves that characters are nothing but a product of circumstances and situations.”
However, like any other trend that reaches its peak and then slowly fades away to return later on, some opine that for now the trend is here to stay.
“Mythologies are exceptional events presented as extraordinary events. But even they are losing the appeal with the present generation. Ashok Banker has done a brilliant job in recreating the entire Ramayana for us to make it breathtaking capturing the epic for modern readers”, says Sanjana Varma, an avid reader and an intern at JWT Advertising Agency.