Krishna key is a thriller. A mythological or historical thriller? No! Its not since the story line doesn’t go through the old times. It is a story that analyses the documentations related to the mythology surrounding Krishna and trying to reinforce that Krishna did indeed exist and that all other literature had been an adopted versions of the vedas. Had the author explained these in a non-fiction book, noone would have bothered to read. Hence the fictional element. The ardent research the author made reaches the readers through a background story. Why I thought of writing this discussion? I will get to it after giving a brief account on the story.
Coming to the story: Professor Saini is arrested and treated like a criminal by the police. Why? Because he was the last visitor of Prof, Varshney who was murdered and also because he possessed the seal which belonged to Prof.Varshney. I was wondering if it is so easy to Charge someone of a grave murder on these two grounds. Questioning is another matter but torturing in a Jail as bad as Abu Gharib! Well I don’t have personal experiences so I will keep it with myself.
Next we see Prof. Ravi Mohan Saini on a run to save his face with the help of his doctoral student Priya. Thenceforth we witness several nail biting incidents,murders,accusations, revelations. A serial killer who thinks that he is the eighth Avatar of Vishnu and murders the scientists for retaining dharma. Tharak Vakil’s character is well conceived. We can relate with the helpless boy who later gets transformed into a cold blooded murderer. Just that, even if the author reinforces that he is intelligent, we feel that he is dump for following the orders blindly.
Discussion
The novel is irrevocably an Indian version of Angels and Demons and that’s the main criticism the author faced, not that he cares. I feel that its not a negative but a positive. All Indians know that we have a lineage of rich culture, heritage, literature and art but we never bothered to go into the roots of the paraphernalia of cultural background. Ashwin Sanghi portrayed this channel so clearly and crisply that we will end up raising our head high for being in a country with such rich history, the present day scenario is not good though. Nevertheless, Ashwin has succeeded in playing the role of Indian Dan Brown. I don’t understand why is ti considered unpropitious. Author has researched well for this book and the research paid off well. The connection between the victims’ surnames and the clans of Krishna and the Anagrams of Tarak Vakil and Sir Khan are interesting. Author intertwined the history with the present , seamlessly.
We comes to know that Prof.Saini was in love Priya while he was on exile. The love part was not needed at all. The author mentioned it in just a sentence but it was biting in the whole story line since he falls in love again with Radhika Singh, whom he met days before and considers her as soul mate. Had Priya not been the vamp, would he think of Radhika for a moment? Is spending a few days, well between life and death, a criteria to fall in love? There was no mentioning about any attraction between the two of them and all of a sudden they end up in a bedroom.! Does a book need to have a bedroom sequence for the reader to think highly of it? Nay, I don’t think so. May be the sequence was needed to explain the quote ” The philosopher more important than the stone.” The same takes a star off.
