A Badass Sita
Amish Tripathi of the Immortal of Meluha is back with a new series. We read the second part of his Ram Chandra series and reviewed ‘Sita: Warrior of Mithila’. We can definitely say, we were pleasantly surprised... Here’s why?
Amish Tripathi of the Shiva Trilogy has returned with Part 2 of Ram Chandra Series. Where ‘Scion of Ishvaku’, the Part 1, was considered entertaining, yet bland. This one has captured the imagination of many and kept all hooked. The reason for that is Amish’s portrayal of Sita in this retelling of Ramayana.
In this book, Sita is not the ‘Sati Savitri’, as told in the old tales, but a warrior princess who is an orphan and ostracized from birth. So, it is no surprise that she learns to fight against the world from a young age. As the story progresses, she is chosen to lead the Vayaputras and Malayaputras in the war against Raavan and his demonic influence on the world.
And, instead of playing second fiddle to Ram, she is the one who is chosen by Lord Vishnu to topple Raavan’s empire. When she confesses about this development to Ram, he is the one who decides to play second fiddle to her.
The world-building in this series is amazing, the detailing can be a bit overbearing and the side characters like Hanuman and Jatayu are well crafted. Raavan’s economic exploitation of India and its resources makes him one of the most hated characters in this book, which was essential not only for this book but the series in whole.
And though we like this book better than the first one, it still lags and slows as it reaches the finale. There are points where the book overlaps with the first one, there the author has kept the narration and dialogues the same. Hence, it feels like you are re-reading something, you have already read and leaves the reader feeling a bit cheated.
As a whole, we’ll give this book 3 Stars out of 5. Let’s hope Amish’s next book Raavan: Orphan of Aryavarta builds on to this installment of the Ram Chandra Series.
From the July 2017 issue of FHM India.
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