Title: Narasimha
Series: Mahaavatar Trilogy #1
Author: Kevin Missal
Date published: June 10, 2019
Publisher: Harper Collins
Review
This story is the retelling of the story of Prahlad, a demon-born devotee of Lord Vishnu and Narasimha, the half-human and half-lion avatar of Vishnu. The story revolves around that war between gods and demons, Narasimha’s quest to be the Dharm and Prahlad’s inner conflict between his duty towards his father and empire and his faith towards Vishnu.
This book helped reminisce the time I used to read Amar Chitra Katha graphic novels of such mythological stories. This extended version does justice to the classic story, in my opinion.
Like Missal’s first book Dharmayoddha Kalki, Narasimha is also a character-heavy story. The story is spearheaded by the different characters in the story. I liked the fact that all the characters had different shades of themselves and they are found to be in constant conflict with their ownselves trying to choose the shade they want to cling on to.
What I disliked was the character of Bhairav, avatar of Lord Shiva, the utter helplessness he shows in the novel. If he is an avatar of Shiva, wouldn’t he have the mental and physical power of the God? He couldn’t even save his own son from his kidnapper. This is the portion of the story which was completely unacceptable for me. Again, it is appreciable that Gods have been given human-like characteristics and not of supernatural beings.
