Mleccha-nivaha-nidhane
kalayasi karavalam
dhumaketum
iva kim api karalam
kesava
dhrita-kalki-sarira jaya jagadisa hare
Victory
to Keshava , the lord of Universe, Who would assume the form of
Lord Kalki,
Who would appear like a blazing comet, Holding
a terrifying sword and kill,
All barbarians at the end of Kali
age.
The story
starts as Mr.Varshney gets knocked off by the antagonist of the
story. The author has made a fabulous attempt to bring a lot of
history along with the epic Mahabharata in his piece of work. The
plot gets interesting as Ravi Mohan is charged guilty of the crime
that he has not committed. The miraculous way of Ratnani and Priya
(Ravi Mohan's doctoral student) involving in getting Ravi released
from the clutches of the police. The way every time the duo gets
caught by the police and someone out of thin air appears to save
them. The best part of the book is when Tarak Vakil aka Sampath Kumar
tells Mataji about his first success on killing Varshney, the
scientist. It leaves he reader in wonder to discover who Mataji is.
The story
revolves around the four secret seals of Lord Krishna which is
believed to be in Mt Kailash or the Somnath temple in Dwaraka.
Efforts from the police force goes in vain and the murderer gets away
with every crime he commits almost effortlessly. The police force of
Radhika and Rathore are mislead as the murderer leaves a symbol R.M
after every incident along with a stamp and a few Sanskrit lines. The
police force gets after Ravi Mohan based on the initials RM found at
the murder site.
Kalki avatar
being the last incarnation of Lord Vishnu, meant to destroy the evil
on earth is created by Mr. Khan out of Tarak Vakil aka Sampath Kumar
and gets him trained under Priya who is an ardent devotee of Lord
Krishna. Khan's interest lies in finding the philosopher stone, he
claims himself to have descended from the Krishna clan. Priya's
father Ratnani, a famous advocate is forced to serve Khan aka Kanha,
a goon as instructed by Sunil Garg, the corrupted CBI officer. Priya
seeks revenge on both Khan and Sunil Garg based on an incidence
during her childhood days.
As Priya
reveals her identity as Mataji, police officer Radhika Singh, Rathore
and the historian Mr. Ravi Mohan Saini are baffled which in-turn
brings them together as a team to fight Priya and Tarak. Ravi
survives several attacks as they go in search of the seals. They face
a lot of challenges but finally end up finding the secret in the
beautiful Taj Mahal and understands that the secret lies in the
philosopher and not the stone.
The author
has tried his level best to bring in some humor and romance in
between. However, at a point the writing goes off balance. It seemed
like the author, Ashwin Sanghi has packed everything in the 400 odd
pages. At times, the explanation of history gets a little too boring
and also the reader may not find it interesting at times. The
explanation of Mahabhatha in the background when the story runs in
the foreground loses connection at times. It also becomes very
confusing at a point when the author gives detailed information about
every character. Introduction of Sarala aunty and Sunil Garg makes no
sense. The unusual way of Mr. Khan getting killed by Priya and the
escape of the father and daughter also leaves a little ambiguity to
the readers.
At times, I
felt like I was reading Angels and Demons and at a point when Mr.Khan
reveals himself as Kanha and his affair with the film star took me to
the movie, “Once Upon A Time In Mumbai”.
Overall, the
author has very well connected Lord Krishna and his clans with the
modern day surnames of the scientists who were the custodians of the
seals. The explanation of places along with the maps and the
connectivity of it with some secret codes is certainly a difficult
job to accomplish and the author has done a tremendous job.
Sometimes, it feels that it is packed with a lot of information which
could have been eliminated otherwise, a good read.
The story
ends with Mr. Saini and Radhika coming together as lovers at the
amazing monument Taj Mahal while Rathore calls it an alchemy in
progress.
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