Vikrama Vikrama by Indira soundararajan – book review

Managed to finish the second by literally burning midnight oil, when there was no power the whole night !! The second part was not as interesting as the first for the very reason that, the novelty of running the story in past and present had worn out and managing to run the story line with present world similarities began to drag after a while as expected. There were far too many convenient plot changes that lead to the eventual climax. The story was moving forward based on the Naadi suvadis having 32 slokas on Vikram. The first half of the book had dealt with about 8 of them that made me wonder how the author will fit remaining 24 slokas into one book. The answer was not to my liking as the story progressed towards the climax, the otherwise detailed slokas got crunched into couple of word baits at best. The other disappointment being that of the role of vedhalam in present world story. For all the hype around the introduction on part one, it fell literally flat and simple on the latter. But nevertheless, it was a fantastic attempt in matching and recreating the story of erstwhile king and every single event of his adventurous life into a present day story. Worth making it as a blockbuster movie or at the least a web series. The ending was quite expected and calling everything as a dream might’ve suited storytelling styles couple of decades back but not the present world. If at all it is made into a movie, it is worth a relook. Like every male dominated movie, in this as well, the heroine hardly has any role. There are lot of untapped story arcs in this novel that would make a wonderful prequel/sequel to this book. Especially the stories of the 32 padhumais adorning the simhasanam, how they helped vikraman and possibly Bojarajan as well when he gets to adorn the throne. Beyond a point, the vedhalam stories all became straitjacketed and the endings or the judgements passed by Vikram might not be accepted or relatable for present day crowd. But the fact that it is a treasure trove of stories and a testament for the creativity of our forefathers stands never in doubt. Some of the stories are amazingly creative and would require budgets on the scale of Disney and Marvel movies to make them into screen sizzlers. Wish some one really takes it up with those Hollywood guys and have some of these stories get the acclaim they deserve. If Arabian nights, Aladdin and other stories from Asia can be made for Hollywood’s taste, these will definitely fit right in with their ambitions and quite sure would resonate with audience world wide.