In
Greece the tomb of Alexander's mother is discovered. Alice is one of
the archaeologist who has worked on its discovery. Her colleague is
murdered and his murderers are after her life as well. She slips
through the attempt on her life along with a prized possession – a
cube with inscriptions, which she had picked from the tomb. Instead
of going back to her home in US, she lands up at Junagarh fort where
her erstwhile beau Vijay is staying. Vijay's parents were
archaeologists as well. They died in a road accident but have left
behind plethora of papers. The plot is known to the author. So he
believes all the characters know what is going to happen next. So all
the hunches are acted upon very confidently. From the papers left
by his parents, Vijay, his ex and present girlfriend, father of the
present girlfriend and his friend make a trip to the museum. Alice's
predators have traced her up to the museum. Plus there is a cop who
discovers corpses which are hidden in a lab. The lab is run by a
company whose director had funded Alice's excavation in Greece. So
Vijay's present girlfriend Radha goes to get some first hand news
from the lab and is in turn kidnapped. So Vijay offers to solve the
mystery of the cube as a barter for Radha's life. The killers belong
to an Order, whose details are not revealed. Even Alexander's mother
was a member of the said order. She had shared the secret of being
immortal with her son.
As
stated earlier the problem with the Mahabharata Quest the Alexander
Secret is that all the characters like the author know what is the
secret. They act upon their whims. They are very much convinced
rather are confident of their guesses. The result is – the manner
in which the protagonist and his team find out Alexander was on a
look out of bio-terrorism turns utterly ridiculous. Plus the
bio-terrorism angle is abandoned mid-way to give way for immortality.
None of the characters have a life of their own. Their character
sketches should have come out better.
Lines
like “Riley had reported in a while back” tell volumes about the
writing style of the author. The author chooses jargons in an attempt
to make the novel classy. But it only makes the comprehension
difficult. The verbose descriptions are not interesting. The
garrulous tone of the novel should have been reduced.
The
way the narrative shifts between Alexander's era and today's times is
definitely interesting. However, the way in which the team infers
that it had all to do with Alexander is not at all convincing. Hence,
the shift is wasted. It loses all its effectiveness owing to the lack
of conviction.
When
Radha had emailed from a laptop, how does the cop trace her location
through her cell phone? The protagonist and the team members rely too
much on the internet for the research and interestingly they do find
answers to most of their riddles that too relating to the ancient
science of immortality on the internet.
As
regards Mahabharata and its secrets are concerned, the novel revolves
around Samudramanthan. Now in no way Samudramanthan has been a high
point in the story of Mahabharata. Whenever you think of Mahabharata,
what comes to your mind? Isn't it the conflict between two sets of
brothers? Isn't it Lord Krishna and Draupadi's disrobing? No where
Samudramantan comes to anyone's mind when we talk of Mahabharata. So
the whole Mahabharata thing is misleading.
The
frequent references to the author's previous novel also mar the
narrative. This novel is not a sequel to the author's first novel. At
least the blurb or acknowledgments do not say so. Moreover the end
says to be continued. At the fag end there is a note by the author
saying that the open ends, the discrepancies in the novel are
intentional as the same will be answered in the upcoming books of the
writer. This is nothing but cheating. If the author desired to come
up with a series, he should have mentioned it in unequivocal words in
the preface, blurb and even on the cover. The note at the end gives
the reader a feeling of being cheated.
I
feel it is high time that Indian thriller writers should come out of
the clout of Dan Brown and let their creative juices flow.
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