Genres: Fiction
Pages: 178
Published: October 2017
Cover Rating: 5/5
I have said this so many times on my blog, few Indian authors write about the ancient cultural knowledge that this diverse nation possess. Dr. Kalyan C. Kankanala does that in his latest book, The Dravidian. Dravidians are an ancient tribe residing in South India since the age of mythical stories such as The Ramayana. What more interesting about this book is that it is a legal thriller.
An IP Attorney, who is blind, volunteers for the Dravidian tribe, holders of ancient knowledge capable of re-defining the fundamentals of modern medicine, in the Courtroom. Over hundreds of years, the Dravidian warriors have been dedicating their lives to preserving and protecting the medicinal knowledge, but now, everything they had lived for is at risk of annihilation. They are facing a force of bio Pirates too strong to defend, and are losing the battle. Our protagonist, Arjun, is smart and has a few victories up his sleeve, but he is facing a toothless law, corrupt legal system, and formidable adversaries. Arjun knows that his failure means the destruction of the Dravidian tribe and loss of their invaluable knowledge.
More, the tribe is constantly at war with another neighbouring tribe who are trying to destroy the knowledge bearers by bullying them into death. The whole storyline is written as thriller novel. It does possess something new for a reader to dive in, I especially learned a few bits about the Dravidians myself, only heard the name before. Then the setting of the novel is good, but could have been more descriptive. I have figured that the protagonist has to be Arjun, who is a blind yet sharp and an honest IP attorney presented as a complete underdog. He knows how to manage and use his disability to his own advantage, in a good way. The author has done a great job in representing that.
The plot started at a mythical point and it is good to see that he uses this knowledge for developing the plot throughout the book. The characterisation is good, there is enough focus on the main cast. The writing style is fast paced and alternates between first and third person narrative voices. This is an excellent presentation of that. The key takeaways are a story to read and getting dwelled in an adventure. The pace of the book moves really well with the plot. One point I did not like was the build up. It takes longer than I expected to shift focus on the main cast. The thrill element is there, and author does a good job by introducing subplots in between.
I recommend this book if you want to read good Indian Fiction and dwell a little in the history of Dravidians.
4 out of 5!
Many thanks for the review. Saves us time in deciding on which books to read. 🙂