Ramayana as you "NOT" know it

Asura takes you on an interesting journey. If you have grown up in India watching or reading Ramayana, this book is bound disturb you. For the simple reason that it questions every fact in the original Ramayana and turns it on its head and poses difficult questions on our age old understanding of Ram, Ramayana and the history (or mythology) of that time. In this element, the book definitely keeps you engrossed as you'd want to keep on reading to know the author's perspective on famous incidences and stories from Ramayana, that you know, probably by heart.

I am an agnostic, so could really look at it from an objective standpoint. Really it was an interesting experience and exercise to try to map out and compare what I knew and what "Asura" has to say. I am sure the book has been thoroughly researched and it is simply amazing to see how two completely different versions of the same story can exist and more importantly how two sets of people could believing equally ardently in their versions. Having said that, it is definitely a bold book in that it questions the faith of a larger part of the country in their most popular god - Lord Rama. I am surprised that the book has managed to steer clear from any controversies and the hardliners have not picked up on Mr. Neelkantan yet. It's a bit of nice coincidence that I read 2 books back to back - Mein Kampf and Asuras, both trying to tell the other side of the story and attempting to change the perception of arguably the 2 most celebrated villains of the world.

Coming to the meat of the book, well as the title says, it chronicles the rise and fall of Ravana, through the eyes of Ravana and a fairly nondescript yet pivotal character Bhadra. The book paints the Asura society as more open minded and culturally modern in outlook and the Deva (read Ramarajya) culture as extremely orthodox ridden by many societal issues like casteism, inequality etc. It also pins the source of all such evils to one class - the Brahmins and doesn't leave an opportunity to take a dig at them.

Whats interesting is that the book doesn't attempt at justifying any actions of Ravana and calls out loud all his vices and evils and leaves him for what he is while the same "let-it-be" approach has not been extended in characterizing Rama. You will feel, at a number of places, that while Ravana's actions have been accommodated as a part of his nature and personality, Rama's actions have been specifically highlighted in order to bring to the attention of reader that the common perception about him may not be as true and correct. Some of the pivotal incidents of Ramayana, Rama's actions and the very basis of the war has been shown in a completely different light.

The USP of this book lies in the intrigue it creates with arguments against the much accepted notions and the faith on Lord Rama and Ramayana and does that brilliantly. Well paced and well written, Neelkantan has surely pulled out a cracker in more than literally terms.

A word of caution though, read it with a pinch of salt and keep your objectivity on while reading this book. It may hurt your faith at times and lead you to read too much into this book. It's a good piece of mythological fiction and I would urge you to leave it at that.

While I am writing this, I am reminded of another gem of a movie, actually 2 movies from Clint Eastwood - The flag of our fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima - that attempted the same with one historical moment in the WW II history between US and Japan. Strongly recommend them to the readers if you are the kind who can accommodate more than 1 perspective without taking sides.