Shakuni, Master of Games | A brief book review

Hey folks! Welcome back to the reader’s corner. In today’s blog, I am going to share another interesting book. Before jumping into the review, I would like to ask a question Who is a villain, or what is your opinion on negative lead? Well, for me a villain is also a human-like hero but his side of the story is never revealed. So, in this blog, I am going to reveal the story of the vilest of all villains. (any guesses till now?)

ABOUT THE BOOK

The book “SHAKUNI MASTER OF GAMES” written by Ashutosh Nadkar. This book depicts the story, totally from the eye of Shakuni. In this book, he is the hero. The book description goes like this Threatened by the formidable Kuru dynasty, the kingdom of Gandhara is forced to marry off its princess to the blind king of Kuru, Dhritarashtra. Enraged by this defeat, shaken, the heir to the Gandhara kingdom, vows to seek revenge. He uses the Kauravas and Pandavas as Pawns in a cleverly crafted game of deceit and destruction and watches as the mighty Kuru kingdom crumbles. Told through the gripping perspective of Shakuni, this retelling of the Mahabharata asks the burning question –was Shakuni really the vilest of all villains or the victim of a grave injustice?

HOW DID I LAND IN THIS BOOK?

Well, in recent times the television has started to re-telecast the mythological series due to lockdown. While watching Mahabharat with my granny the question suddenly hit me hard what is the main motive of Shakuni behind his very evil act? So, I went on hunting facts, history, and stories about Shakuni then found this book on the juggernaut app. Eventually, I settled myself to embrace the totally different version of Mahabharat.

If you are interested in reading such similar book reviews, click the link here – Brief Book Reviews.

SHAKUNI, MASTER OF THE GAME.

First of all, I just wondered about the fact that Mahabharatam was an epic which was believed that it might have happened before like 10,000 years or I don’t know but the story was well carried till now from generations to generations without any changes in way of portraying the good and evil characters. And then I realized the mammoth power of storytelling, mainly the part played by the local folklore that is simply amazing. Though there may be different versions of the story, they won’t change the main essence of the story. I sometimes read some books very slowly to enjoy each and every detail of them. Speaking of the story, first, it was very hard for me to believe Shakuni’s side of the story as I was well drowned on the other side. Then slowly very slowly, I took baby steps to accept his story.

I mostly like the concept of the author that on the contrary this great war was waged between Pandavas and Kauravas but according to the author’s perception, it was the war waged between Shakuni and Lord Krishna. And the most interesting thing about the book is the way it carefully portrays the good spirit of Shakuni. The way Shakuni sees every event is like how normal people see them. So, when he tries to get a clear vision about it, it goes in an evil way. But we failed to understand that that is the right way.

MY OPINION ON THIS BOOK

In this book, the protagonist asks the readers many questions to which I couldn’t able to find an answer to. Then I learned that hereafter, I should read both sides of the story. By reading this book, I found many interesting events that took place but never revealed in the main story. So, I think Books and Folklore are the great means of passing our great epics to the next generation.

I actually admire more about Prince Shakuni. Then this hit my mind that we are very easily judging the person with his action and deeds but we are failing to look deep into their actions. I learned many things from this book but, one notable thing is

“Not all the wise men are wise and not all the evil-minded people are completely evil”.

So, readers if you are searching for any books about anti-heroes, then my suggestion is to start with this book “SHAKUNI MASTER OF GAMES” by Ashutosh Nadkar. Because for the only reason is, he is always delineating as the vilest of all villains.

Happy reading!

P.S.

In case if you are looking to buy this book, let me make it easier. Here is the Amazon link for this book. Click, buy, and enjoy reading. Link – Shakuni, master of the game.

If you are looking for similar book review posts, then you must definitely check out my previous blog posts. Here is the link –Readers’ Corner. All reviews are SPOILER-FREE.

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