Ramchandra Series by Amish: A review

This blog has minor spoilers, so if you intend to read this series in the near future, you can give this a miss. Though I can assure you, there isn’t much you are missing!

Amish Tripathi stormed the Indian Literary market with his best selling Shiva Trilogy. Hence, when the Ramchandra series was released there was a lot of hype around it. As per Amish’s profile on Goodreads, this is the second fastest selling (sic) book series in Indian publishing history! That is a huge achievement. I believe Amish is a good story teller, but I don’t rate him highly as a writer.

The Good

Amish has a marketing background. The fact that he has called this the Ramchandra series and not Ramayana is brilliant positioning. It has allowed him to take many liberties with the storyline and origin stories. Amish has used the multi-linear narrative format. Three books deal with the stories from the perspective of the key protagonists – Ram, Sita & Raavan. Their characters have been developed a shade differently from the original epic. I like that.

Ramchandra has the traits which have made his Valmiki-equivalent the poster boy of Indian politics. But I liked that Amish has built a more humane, unsure and vulnerable lead. Sita’s character build is good too. She is an equal, in fact the main lead! Traces of woke tropes, but relatable to young adults. I was thrilled with the importance given to Bharath and Shatrughna. The fact that they don’t have much to do in the main epic always irked me. Amish has put them in front and centre in his series. The treatment of Kumbhakarna’s character is indeed refreshing. It adds a completely different dimension to what we usually know of him from the epic.

The Bad

Although the story telling has a good pace but it consistently falters towards the middle of each book. With average writing it felt like different parts of the book had been written by different people.

The characterization of Ravaan a complex character is good in bits but becomes very one dimensional towards the end of this series. Unfortunately Hanuman, one of the central characters of the main epic has been relegated to a support cast.

I admire Amish’s consistency in using extremely loose language. It is a standard irritant running throughout this series. Use of words like Touche, Bingo, Dammit! feel completely out of place.

Another consistent bug is the mention of modern greats like a Shakuntala Devi in the narrative. For example, Ravaan’s treatise on Rudra Veena is to be handed over to her as per his will! Amish might have found it clever or tongue-in-cheek, but I found it extremely irksome.

The cover of Book 4 has a quote from BBC “[Amish] is India’s Tolkien and Asia’s Paulo Coelho”

I found the quote downright disrespectful to the legends. Anyway, can’t expect much from an industry whose poster boy was Chetan Bhagat (who is not a relative of mine!).

Book 4 is the most disappointing book of this series. In addition to all that I have said above, it is sickeningly sugary in parts. This entire series, especially Book 4, seems ‘agenda’ driven. Our great scientific past. Our thoughtful past. Our rocking culture…Smells like Political spirit!

To sum it up

The series starts off well but it just keeps going downhill from there. If you have read the Ramayan and want to read a different story, this series is a good one-time read. Make sure you borrow it from a friend or a library, it isn’t worth buying.

For a first time reader of Ramayan, I recommend:

• Valmiki Ramayana – Arshia Sattar
• Ramayana Series – Ashok K Banker

Here are some of my older posts on related topics. Do read and comment!

• Hey…Ram!
• Lost Loves
• Tragedy of epic proportions
• My two cents on The Shiva Trilogy by Amish Tripathi
• Asura: Tale of the vanquished reader