Delirium Tremens: October 2012

Monday, October 8, 2012

The Krishna Key – A Review

Book: The Krishna Key
Author: Ashwin Sanghi
Publishing Year: 2012
Number of Pages: 475

Language: English

List Price: Rs. 250 INR

Ashwin Sanghi is an entrepreneur by day, novelist by night. Ashwin lives in Mumbai with his wife, Anushika, and his eight-year old son, Raghuvir.

This is the third book written by Ashwin Sanghi that I have now read. I started reading Ashwin Sanghi with “The Rozabal Line”, then moved on to “Chanakya's Chant” and now finally onto “The Krishna Key”. Needless to say that the reason I continued to read Ashwin Sanghi’s work was because I liked what he wrote and the overall scripting, narration, storytelling and suspense were binders. This is what made me eagerly await his works.

Right from his book 1 - “The Rozabal Line”, I’ve felt that he has in one way or the other adopted, refined, tweaked Dan Brown’s way of writing especially from ‘The DaVinci Code’. There are heavy parallels that may be drawn here, of course with the caveat that these are my thoughts and have no ill intention.

Coming back to “The Krishna Key “, the very first thought that crossed my mind was how much if this is facts and fiction. This is a remarkable way of writing and presents a superb way of storytelling. I for starters was completley engrossed in the facts that were presented in a straight ‘matter of fact’ manner that I was spell bound. Three pages more of reading and I was searching on the internet for the mentioned facts. This did two things; one: kept my mind completely occupied with the book; two: made me aware of our rich cultural heritage which most Indians (at least the younger generation) either discredits as fantasy or not even acknowledges. With books like the ones written by “Amish Tripathi” and “Ashiwin Sanghi” becoming popular, we never know one day most of us Indians might just start becoming proud of being who we are rather than aping the west. A lot of bloggers have mentioned Aswin Sanghi as copying other popular authors works. I on my part would not write anything to take the credit away from Ashwin who has done a superb job again with this latest book.

This book talks about Krishna – the God, a young man who thinks himself as the reincarnation of Krishna and a professor. Here is the synopsis of the book:

Five thousand years ago, there came to earth a magical being called Krishna, who brought about innumerable miracles for the good of mankind. Humanity despaired of its fate if the Blue God were to die but was reassured that he would return in a fresh avatar when needed in the eventual Dark Age—the Kaliyug.

In modern times, a poor little rich boy grows up believing that he is that final avatar. Only, he is a serial killer.

The overall ‘Plot’ of the book seems very convincing. Yes, there are parallels to other works, but, the way the book grows on you is remarkable and call for a lot of effort. My 5on 5 for it.

The narration and storytelling is typical Ashwin style and it is not bad at all, infact it goes very well. With its un-complicated terminology/Sanskrit phrases, the book never felt like a burden or a history lesson. One can also clearly visualize things happening. This and the overall pace of things picks up steam as we keep reading making this a compelling read. The suspense is well-balanced, and character development efficient and effective.

To sum up, this book is a good read. As always, you read and decide! My final verdict: 4 on 5.

You may read the first five chapters as a free preview at http://slidesha.re/MDC5iT.

Also you may watch the trailer here:

http://youtu.be/Yyiz7okQx8I