Vanara- The legend of Baali, Sugreeva and Tara by Anand Neelakantan

Vanara- The legend of Baali, Sugreeva and Tara Reviews

• 
  Vikalp Trivedi

  Continuing to give the voice to the vanquished this time Anand Neelakantan chose to voice- Baali - The great Vanara king from Ramayana who was slained in a sibling rivalry. Like his other books this one also starts with a bull's eye attempt to target the hypocrisy of caste hirarchy of those times. Vanaras who are considered as lowly of the lowliest are the forest living uncultured people who are destined to be Dasas (slaves). Attitudes of both the warring clans Asuras and Devas are indifferent to them, they are mere slaves to both the clans. Even Vanaras have compromised with this and they think that they are destined to be slaves forever. Till one day a boy coming out form abject poverty and slavery decides to take a stand against everything and everyone to built a kingdom for his people. Hence starts a story of rise and fall of the Vanara Empire.
  
  The book starts off really well. The initial half of the book describes the start of  Baali and Sugreeva's journey of taking initiative for their people's soverginity and later in the first half gives a good start to the love triangle. Sugreeva and Baali both love Tara in their own ways and it was a good attempt to give both of the lead characters their own unique personalities. The only problem with the initial part was that too much attention was given to develop Baali and Sugreeva as compared to that of Tara. But the first half was quite balanced where the love triangle and Baali's determination to raise the kingdom were portrayed nicely.
  
  At first glace the book seemed a very promising one but the later half was loaded with many problems I have read two books before this one by Anand Neelakantan both of them being of Ajaya series. The best thing I liked about those books was that all the characters acted in a grey area. The shade of the grey may vary but they were grey. But in this book Baali and Sugreeva are painted in black and white, where Baali is flawless protagonist who has a very charismatic and overpowering personality and Sugreeva is his vengeful and spiteful brother. This entire set up reminded me of a very familiar "Thor-Loki Angle". These two characters deteriorates as the novel proceeds. After Tara's marriage to Bali Sugreeva becomes a psycho obsessive lover and I never understood what did author want to do with Baali's character. The character becomes more stupid and dumb in the later half of the book.
  
  This was not enough the worst was yet to come. Tara though the character started developing late in the book, there was one instance where she shines and I thought that she would be a strongly built character. But all my hopes were shattered after she marries Baali. After marriage she becomes a victim of an obsessive lover and never utters a word about it to her husband. There is a very radiculous chapter in the book where she is disrespected throughout the chapter and this was handled very casually in the novel. It was the worst thing I have ever read in any novel. At one point the book only remains about Tara, her physical attractiveness and the men lusting after her.
  
  To focus on the obsessive lust of Sugreeva everything else was thrown out of window. All of a sudden Baali becomes friends with the elders' council - who were is biggest opposition, during the initial period of the book they proudly used to say that they are Van Naras not Vanaras but later they take it very casually when someone called them Vanaras. Baali wanted his people to be civilised but throughout the book all of them behaved in animalistic manner.
  
  A very disappointing book.
• 
  Sankalpita (bookGeeks India)

  Riveting and compelling. Watch the detailed video review on my channel.
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qczN...
• 
  Theredheaded_Bibliomaniac

  A pure fiction.
  Just the base story of Bali and Sugreeva are taken and story is made.
  Author himself said in the beginning that this is not original story. This is "what could have been".
  (had i knew this before than i wouldn't have bought or read it coz if don't like original story to be changed)
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  This book says that whatever stories we have heard about Indian Mythology which includes magic are not true.
  All are made by poets and singers.
  Everything that happens in this book is due to caste discrimination.
  There is nothing which has no explanation.
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  All we were aware of story of Bali and Sugreeva. Author has given voice to their thoughts.
  What they thought, how they thought that.
  Every character that we ever considered good is shown as bad one.. And vice-a-versa.
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  I knew i won't like the book when in first chapter itself it is shown that Ahalya is having a consensual affair with Indra.
  We have heard two stories. In one Ahalya knew about Indra's disguise and in another one she didn't know about the disguise.
  But in this one he calls it an Affair.
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  He says new generation will question things. And he is giving them non-magical answers.
  What i think is if young generation is so much into fantasy then they can totally accept the mythology.
  
  I agree that there are few mistake were done by the good side but that doesn't mean you show all their thoughts and turn him into a bad person 😌
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  Basically he says when he writes from the perspective of Ravan all others are the rivals and hence the bad side.
  Same is shown here.
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  Well the good thing was that i kind off liked Bali. But that doesn't mean that i would hate all the other characters shown here.
  Well again its a fiction within mythology.
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  I would prefer pure mythology or pure fiction.
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  Well it's totally my perspective many of you would have loved this book.
  But i didn't.
  Also i found few mistakes in it.
  2 actually some mistake in story..
• 
  Sriram

  Wish Valmiki and Ved Vyas had copyrighted their works. Amitav Ghosh, Devdutt Patnaik and now this! All conspiring to distort the epics and puranas. A story can be adopted but distorting the original to suit your ends is not something I can think off
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  Shreyas Karanth

  Props for the concept. I'm a huge fan of retellings.
  
  But the writing was sub par. I really think the author could have done a better job of pacing the story in the book. The dialogues were also very lackluster.
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  Deepa Kishore

  Baali is a heart wrenching love story that explores the grey areas of emotions. Raw in its appeal, it takes the reader to the era when the Vanaras lived. Baali's philosophy towards God, life and his high values and conditional love for his brother and wife has been portrayed so well. You love his strength yet his vulnerability. The book explores the heart of Tara, her conflicting emotions, her strength and her helplessness - which makes the book so much women centric. Totally loved it.....Kudos again to Anand Neelkantan for making the book on Baali /Sugreeva - the characters who are not much debated in the Ramayan.
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  Prakhar Pandey

  A very compelling, intriguing and a must read by Anand Neelakantan. Vanara, a book deals not just with the love triangle and all the conspiracies you can hear but, it also deals with the uprisings from the lowly and fulfilling the dream of building an empire. Kishkindha, the empire who never had that much attention in our mythology about how it was made and the values associated with. The neglected vana-nara and the struggles all that is bind with the dilemma of Tara and a twisting yet blending with emotions. A definite and a must read. Just read Asura so that you can have a better understanding the relationship between Bali and Ravana
• 
  Vinay Leo

  #2019 #YearinBooks Book 43
  
  I love mythology and especially Indian mythology. I've read the Ramayana and about the fight between Baali and Sugreeva in which Rama kills the former. But that's all I have read about the Vanara brothers. It was nice to read this book which expanded on the tale leading to that fight.
  
  In the novel, the author shares the tale of how Kishkindha, the kingdom of the Vanaras was built by Baali, Sugreeva and Nala the architect. It starts with a tale of brotherly love before the arrival of Tara, the woman both brothers want.
  
  Fantasy/mythology genre novels need to be engaging. This book was. I loved how the characters are sketched. Each have their strengths and flaws. Baali is painted as the hero instead of the villain and it worked. At times it feels like the characters are black and white instead of grey but that's only after Tara comes into the picture. For me, that was understandable.
  
  Loved the cover art too, and I will reread.
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  Mika Bhat

  Is a fast paced book but to me seemed like bashing a particular community rather than retelling the mythology. Neelakantan has tried making it resonate with today's generation, but unfortunately has ended targeting certain communities and making it about current politics.
  The book also has a lot of errors, grammatical & orthographic. There are better versions out there about this section of Ramayana.
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  Bella

  Wow
  
  I love the way of story telling. I love how the author has explored Tara's and Sugreevas mind. I love the way how he interprets Ruma and Tara. I have read only very few books which can interpret woman's mind. The love triangle is well plotted. What a great book. But 'Asura' remains my favourite. Waiting for the movie, hope it would do justice to the book.
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  Nytika Shetty

  Nothing remarkable about this book save for one scene.
• 
  Darshayita Thakur

  Rating - 2.5 stars
  My thoughts about mythological re-tellings are often at loggerheads. Is Mythology fiction or is there some truth to it? That debate is best not addressed here.
  
  That being said, I will treat this as fiction loosely based on mythology and address my thoughts on the characters in the book, just as they are - characters in a book.
  
  When you belong to the lowest rungs of society, and it has been ingrained through several generations that your place is there, at the mercy of the higher class, somewhere along the line you start believing in it.
  
  No one is born a slave, yet the vana naras considered them to be one. Yes, you read that right, I wrote vana nara (literal translation: Jungle men) and not vanara (literal translation: monkey). They have so often been degraded by being called the latter that they chose to wear that as their pride.
  
  Sibling rivalry stemming from jealousy is an undercurrent that is felt on every page of the book. While the characters of Bali and Sugreeva took centre stage, I would have loved to see more of Tara. Her character got lost somewhere in the midst of the testosterone war that was going on.
  
  The writing could definitely have been better: a lot better. It feels like someone was forced to write an essay over their summer vacation for school and they did it last minute.
  
  I was surprised to find redundant lines getting repeated time and again and a few naïve errors at places. Maybe only my edition had these. I surely hope so.
  
• 
  KR Praveen (பிரவீண்)

  Hindu mythology has always been a treasure trove of stories. I grew up listening to the fantastic stories or myths related to the Hindu gods and other characters in the mythology and it has always been a wonder to me even at this age. Asura which was one of Anand's previous books was a good read. To add to that Bali was one of my most favorite characters in Ramayana prompting me to have a go at the book.
  
  The book travels mostly through the thoughts of Sugriva and Tara. Shunned by Devas and Asuras equally, the Vana naras are the inferior tribe when it comes to status. They are not entitled to education and mostly do menial jobs like carrying night soil or doing their house hold chores of other tribes. Determined not to die slaves, they study under Ravana and once back build a city of their own, Kishkinta. Tara the village doctor's daughter and Bali are in love with each other which Sugriva detest as he too loves her. This turns him against Bali who blindly loves his brother. What happens next is the remaining story and this is delicately wound with the legend that is Ramayana.
  
  The book has a good start on how Bali and Sugriva try to break out of being Dasas and starts working towards a world for their own.But half way into the book, it seems to lose steam. Bali is sketched as being the naive one who is as innocent as a baby not seeing through his brother's intentions and Sugriva is shown as the villain. Bali seems to be brilliant in terms of planning and strategy but he being a total dummy regarding his brother is unacceptable. It gives us the feel that Sugriva is portrayed too dark to show Bali as white. In his previous books, Anand Neelakantan maintained the grey shades of the characters brilliantly. Tara did not have much of a role in the initial part of the book. Towards the second half, she becomes a regular. Whenever she comes up in the book, the story is somehow steered towards lust which does test our patience. Even her characterization seems marred by inconsistency. His previous books seemed to talk about a lot of topics like the caste system and the clans along side their life. But here even though it started nice, it steered to lust for Tara and Sugriva's psychotic obsession for her. We can even feel a typical desi movie feel to the story.
  
  Anand had always told the story of the ones in our mythology who were vanquished (good prevails over evil) and given them a grey tone instead of just picturing them as dark villains. The book is a quick read much smaller than Asura and Ajaya. The good narrative in first half is affected seriously in the second half by some shoddy writing. Bali could have been shown in a different way instead of a dumbly innocent person. There is a boom in Indian mythology in modern times with writers coming forward with many stories from various point of views. And it is not easy to make them work among readers. For lovers of mythological stories, this might be a simple read; nothing to ponder about.
• 
  Meghna

  These are characters that we have heard about and know about. Though we know the story of Asura, the character development and the authors perception gave a complex layering to Ravana, which actually made me sympathize with the greatest Villain of my childhood.
  
  This book fails in that one most important point. The 3 characters who narrate us their stories lack the layering and soon become very one dimensional. Not getting into much of the details, we know how it ends for the brothers and when it finally did happen it was alright. The story of what happened to Kishkinda after Baali died and the Vana Naras went to fight, how their society changed once they returned and the fate of Tara all wrap up nicely. But they fail to become anything more than a maybe that could've have happened. The end is melancholic, and honestly the reading left me dissatisfied.
• 
  Nishant Bhagat

  There something in the way Mr Neelkantan writes just does not agree with me. I was left with the same feeling when I had read his Asura.
  
  I don't have an issue with dark and gray literature, but it looks forced. It feels like a political discourse being given here in the guise of a tale. The characters aren't gray in his books, they are simplistically just reversed! The black is white and white is black.
  
  The book starts of promisingly but then just meanders. The key characters aren't fully developed. For example to show some gray in Tara's character, the author gives us glimpses of her attraction towards Sugreev, but that thread is left unexplored. There are similar inconsistencies with the characters of Baali and Sugreev.
  
  f you are a mythology fan, you can give this book a miss. It does not leave you with anything more than disgust.
• 
  Abhijeeth Reddy

  To get the negatives out first, the proofreading work is very shabby, cutting the flow at regular and irritating intervals. There are many glaringly obvious errors and it looks like a book made under the pressure of critical targets and bank in on the writer's fame.
  Narration is awry in a few places but the later parts somewhat make up for the disappointment with glimpses of the writing style that the Anand Neelakantan is known for.
  An underwhelming follow up to Asura and Ajaya overall. (I dont consider Rise of Sivagami as a completely Anand Neelakantan book)
• 
  Soumen Das Roy

  In a scale of 5, if I rate Asura 4.8, Ajaya Series 4.6, Rise of Sivagami 3.8; I can only rate Vanara as 3! It had a good plot, but lacked proper portrayal of characters and transition of events. Many sections seemed to be a forced depiction to meet the theme of the book.
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  Surinder

  Didn't like the book. Straightforward a love triangle.
  Though Anand started nicely. But then it became plain and predictable love story.
  Specially after reading Kali by Anand this book was disappointing, would not recommend this.
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  Shailendra Modi

  Reads like a Soap Opera, though parts of it are good. Ease of reading is good.
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  Swapnil Pandey

  Boring
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  Bhuban Patra

  I did not enjoy it that much, and I strongly felt that the story could have been better (Or it was just a comparison with Asura).
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  Karan Rai

  Way too practical for a mythology.
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  Riddhima

  Very disappointed.
  Badly conceived storyline. Peppered with grammatical errors.
  What even was this?
• 
  Rajesh CNB

  If you were next to me Anand Neelkantan, I would have hugged you and cried my heart out. What a tale have you told my man! What a tale! I am proud of you Anand. You are one of the finest writers that India has and may you keep writing till eternity.
  
  This book for one made me laugh, made me cry and made me one with Baali and Tara and their love for each other. I cried when Baali says "I might be a misfit in this world that is rapidly changing and men like Angada would be taking over the reins soon." Tara, if you are listening as a soul somewhere, I want you to know that I miss Baali as much as you do. Men like him are misfits in this world misguided by a twisted version of Dharma.
  
  One of the most important facets of a book is the ability of the author to involve the reader in the story. I have grown up hearing Ramayana right from when I was 5 years old. I have heard the tale of Wali/Baali countless times. I have believed him to be evil and wild and animalistic. That is how the tale is told, usually. If one had to envision the story of Ramayana from a Vanara point of view, the tale would be different. Anand has effectively turned the table around. I had read his "Asura" earlier, but he has done this with much more grace and coherence than Asura.
  
  The book has a gripping flow. Right from the first page when as an innocent child Sugreeva sees Ahalya's lustful interludes, to the time that Tara is elevated to the level of a Goddess, every word on every page has you in its grip and it winds you and unwinds you in its flow. You are desperate to finish the book and not let it down. The grip only increases in its power and by the end of the story you are completely overwhelmed.
  
  The two main heroes of the story are Baali and Tara. I am saying this explicitly not only because in the first part of the story Tara, as Baali's beloved, shares his dream and has her rightful place in his side, be it building the city of Kishkindha or be it going along with the flow of change even when Baali tries to dissuade her from it, in his momentary blind love for his brother, but also because in the second part of the story she embodies Baali in his full form, again, not only as his grieving widow braving to face Rama and Lakshmana but also as a shell-shocked mother who sees her only child being lauded as a hero for having "used a woman's nakedness" to win a battle.
  
  Anand showed his genius when he did not stop the story at Baali's death, as I had expected it. Somewhere in the story, he had already turned it into the tale of Tara. Baali is dead. Tara is not. We see Baali's dream being vanquished slowly. That egalitarian society which he was so fond of building, giving way to a caste-based and gender biased society where women were thought of as property and not as human beings. We see Tara living through this change, away from it, watching it from a distance, keeping her counsel and her love of Baali alive through heart-rending changes. We see her changing from a young girl with no strings attached attitude to a lover who madly loves a powerful young man to a grieving widow confused between Sugreeva and Baali's love to a mad woman to a Goddess. This story is what is heart-rending. This story is the true story of the Vanara. It is not only Baali who is the Vanara but also Tara.
  
  Anand has not only told a powerful tale, but he has exposed the roots of today's gender-based problems. He has not only told a counter-tale, but he has also successfully convinced me that Rama and his way of life are not all that delightful. That, in the Ramayana, there are hidden aspects that one needs to carefully view before accepting them as the undeniable truth. These books along with those of Ashok Banker's and the original Ramayana must be read by our youth to develop a sense of balance, a sense that all tales are just "points of view" and one might be entirely different from the other.
  
  One final word about the Indian mythological scenario and Anand's contribution to it. When I saw Anand had accepted the Bahubali franchise to write the tales of Mahishmati, I had, for the first time in the History of Indian writing seen the likes of a "Harry Potter" or the "Lord of the Rings" come to life. Likewise, I am now seeing the "counter tale" world of Ramayana and Mahabharata being built by Anand. In this book, he successfully and easily blends the world of counter tale he had built in his book Asura. He makes both Asura and Vanara compatible and thus forms the foundation of the "counter tale" world. This sort of writing not only opens up the ground for many stories, but also gives an exciting (and much needed) platform to shift the standard and given "point of view" about Indian culture and diversity.
  
  Highly recommended read. If you dont read this tale, you would be surely missing something.
• 
  Booxoul

  For me, a good story is that, which keeps you in its grip till the very end, and the remnant of the story with me long after I have done reading. And the real author is that who knows how to tell a tale that becomes grander and grander in readers imagination. Author Anand Neelkanthan is one such author who knows how to create an exquisite art out of the simple tale.
  
  Author Neelkanthan has penned some very popular books - Asura, The Rise of Sivagami, Ajaya 1: Roll of the Dice and, Ajaya 2: Rise of Kali, out of which I read only Asura. He also has scripted a few TV shows like Siya Ke Ram, Chakravartin Ashoka, and Sankatmochan Mahabali Hanuman.
  
  I have grown up listening to Ramayana right from the day I started walking. I’d thought Baali to be a heartless and self-centered character. But Anand totally shattered the image I had in mind of Bali and Sugreeva of my childhood.
  ‘Vanara’ is a mythological fiction. A tale of love, jealousy, respect, deception, and ambitions. This is also a story of the struggle of freedom of the Vanquished ones - Vana Naras or rather Vanaras to free themselves from the shackles slavery of Devas as well as Asuras.
  
  Told from the perspective of three main protagonist- Bali, Sugreeva and Tara, whose fate is entwined to each other in more complex ways. The story is very intriguing and enthralling.
  The narration really bowled me over. I could feel the emotions of Bali, Sugreeva and Tara resonate deep inside of me. Especially I keeled over Tara’s emotions, they were so raw, so humane throughout. Her strength of character left a mark in my mind. In fact, every character in the book Vanara has many shades to them, and they play a very important role to shape the story, regardless big or small. The character like Neel, without whom the City of Kishkinda wouldn’t be there. Ruma, whose dreams of a happy life were quashed the moment she got married.
  The writing style of Anand is beautiful. He has blended the story well with old and new times. It has not only romance as the main ingredient, in fact, the book is a heady mix of the vast array of emotions.
  What I liked most is the book cover and a few illustrations inside the book, which really complimented the story. And climax blew me off!!!. Won’t elaborate, but the climax kind of was beautiful and sad in a very profound way.
  Author has penned the book which is fast-paced and with multiple shades of high entertainment quotient and makes the book unputdownable. I highly recommend this book. Especially if you are a fan of Mythological fiction.