Madhavi Mahadevan, the author of the book The Kaunteyas, which retells the story of epic Mahabharata, will answer the questions of the people and discuss her book at an event conducted by Ranga Mandira Academy of World Dance/Performance and Indic Studies this weekend. Few excerpts from the book will also be read out during the event. In a freewheeling chat with DC, the debutant novelist, who has written many short stories and children books, highlights the things she wants to focus during the event and puts across her reply for the criticisms.
Cover of the book
Talking about the reason for choosing to tell the story from Kunti’s point of view, she says,”If you take all the modern versions of Mahabharata that have been written, many female characters have been flattened out. Even in the televised versions, the one that came back in the 80s and in the recent one, Kunti’s character has no dimensions. That was one of the reasons why I started looking at her character as the lead .”
But for the sake of contemporary readers, she had to keep few things in the mind while writing the book —”The language has to be contemporary. Also, nowadays, single mothers are not uncommon at all. So, I thought of her as a single mother raising her children and the struggles she would face in doing so, and the priorities she would have.”
The one thing she wants to focus on, during the event is the character of Dhritarashtra — “Everyone keeps asking me why I had made him a big villain. Actually, Dhritarashtra, in my personal view, is the most human of all in the story. The opening stanza of Bhagavad Gita has him asking Sanjaya what is going on in the battlefield between ‘my son and the sons of Pandu’. He doesn’t call them as ‘my nephews’ and doesn’t look at them as his dead brother’s son. He looks at them as others. Mahabharata is still relatable because the behaviour of ‘othering’ exists even now.”
Addressing the criticisms that her book could have described the state of Kunti even more elaborately, she says, “This is something I have taken on board. Critics feel that the portions like her confrontation with Karna and inner thoughts about why she didn’t come out and reveal her secret, could have been handled with more drama. My main answer for that is: being a pragmatic woman in such an era, Kunti would have taken a staunch decision and whatever emotions she would have had, she would have controlled deep inside. If you want to call her cold-hearted, that is one word for it but I think she was very pragmatic.”
About the praise points she has got for the book? “The language was appreciated and so was the description of the landscapes and settings. The other thing critics liked about the book was that it didn’t have any dead air in it even for a story that we are all well aware of. The pace of the story was well received.”
(A discussion on the book will be held on June 24 at Sudarshana, R.K. Nagar, Mandaveli)
