Book Review: The Immortals of Meluha

I know The Immortals of Meluha was first published way back in 2010. But I only completed reading it yesterday after starting it more than a year ago and never having got around to finishing it then. This time I was a bit more determined and started reading the book afresh and finished it in just over a day.

The book is first in the Shiva Trilogy by Amish Tripathi. The idea/premise of the story, as most of us may already know, is the question… What if the god we call Shiva was in fact an ordinary human, a rough tribesman, who motivated by an age-old prophecy, his sense of duty and his love for a princess, led a righteous war against evil, in the process turning into a legend… and a god.

The narration is crisp, pacy and more contemporary than mythological. The author maintains a fairly good grip on his story for most part, occasionally letting it wander into the realm of ridiculous. People, places and concepts steeped in ancient Indian mythology have been humanized (or kinda dumbed down, if you prefer this term) and in some cases, convoluted and revisionist logic is applied to explain myths. I did not mind granting the author the literary license to tweak things as long as he kept the story interesting and readable.

The book, by no stretch of imagination, can be called a classic. It is an entertainer at heart and has all the makings of a big-budget movie script. In fact, there is even talk of Karan Johar (Shiva forbid!) producing a movie based on the book. So as long as one does not mind a racy thriller and is not easily offended, religiously speaking, this debut effort by an IIM-C MBA should be a good read.

I’d give the book somewhere between 3 and 4 (ummm… hovering around 3.5) on a scale of 5. And I am looking forward to reading the next book in the trilogy, especially since this one ended tantalizingly with a twist.