Sandipan Deb
Sandipan Deb’s rendition of the Mahabharata in Mumbai. This is obviously not the first rendition of the Mahabharata in contemporary events – Tharoor’s The Great Indian Novel, Mani Ratnam’s Thalapathi, Prakash Jha’s Rajneeti – but this one manages to shift the scene to what seems like an apt arena – the Mumbai underground. Bombay is Kurukshetra and Bombay is the prize.
As with all the other renditions, it is practically impossible to fit all characters and events into the new canvass, so the author has been clinical in removing characters and reshaping events to fit his narrative. On a positive note, the interpretation is not altogether flawed, but is written very clearly on a simplistic level. Many characters have been well etched and can be seen as very close parallels of their originals. There are also contemporary incidents like match fixing, 9/11 etc which have been woven into the plot.
But the simplistic narrative does take away from the immense layering and subtext that the original possesses. (that’s why it’s an epic) I also felt that some events/characters could have been easily included and the narrative brought closer to the original theme. The pace, however, is really quick and there is no lag in the narrative at all. Pick it up for a flight read, and you’re sure not to get bored. No more, no less.
