Book: Raakshas

Publisher: Westland Books

Author: Piyush Jha

Genre: Crime Thriller

More often, it’s the crime thrillers, war-espionage-spy stories, detectives and mysteries that lure me to a book store. The affair with mystery stories and thrillers started in school with Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie and shifted to Robert Ludlum with Bourne series. Later Dan Brown became much favourite.

There have been stories by Indian authors who have tried to shape their books in Dan Brown style with Indian mythology woven in the story but for me, by end of the book those stories lost their grip.

With the delivery of ‘Raakshas’ at my door step I was expecting something similar with a promising great start and later tapering off and story getting diluted.

I delayed reading the novel by a day and decided to take it as my travelling companion for a three-day trip to Kolkata. Though the ‘soon to be a major motion picture‘ tagline on the cover did not make me rush into reading but once I began reading I was happy to find that it captured my attention. Soon I was so engrossed that I almost missed the boarding announcement for flight to Kolkata.

The story is about ‘Raakshas‘, a man so named by his own grandmother for being the cause of death of his mother during childbirth. The boy grows in a love deprived atmosphere often subjected to inhuman behaviour by his own father. A child engulfed by adverse circumstances he is shaped into a heartless, dispassionate and ruthless cold-blooded killer. He meets his nemesis in Maithili Prasad, the Additional Commissioner of Police who hunts him down and puts an end to the terror he unleashed.

That the childhood traumas and upbringing may play a great role in psychology and perceptions of a person is the underlying idea behind the story. The author has brought attention towards the various other reasons that have been researched in other countries, in the making of a serial killer.

After a long time, I have come across a good attention holding story but I am not sure whether it will make into a good movie. One, because in the movies churned out by the Bollywood even a criminal breaks into a song and dance sequence and two, he is shown to have some weird quirks like insane laughing or idiotic conversation during climax which for me spoil it. Also sometimes movies do not do justice to the book. I liked the book ‘Da Vinci Code’ by Dan Brown but did not like the movie.

This is one good story, tight in its composition. I liked it and stopped reading it only after the last page late at night. This story will keep its readers engaged.

Also read on :

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1553340090

http://writersmelon.com/

http://www.flipkart.com/reviews/RVJUMIBE6EZFLS8HI

https://www.amazon.com/review/RUV7S5FJP42K2/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv