Book: The Krishna Key
Author: Ashwin Sanghi
Publication: Westland Ltd
Price: Rs. 300
Pages: 464
Plot: Professor Varshney is one of the few people who know about an unrevealed, highly confidential secret about Krishna, a key, which is called The Krishna Key. This key has 4 seals, and once kept together will point towards the secret. Professor Varshney has one of the 4 seals, and he has asked 3 of his friends to keep the other three safely with them. But one day, he was found dead and his seal missing. The suspect is Professor Saini, Professor Varshney’s friend, whom Professor Varshney has given one of the seals, a 40-year-old historian. On finding out about his friend’s death, his first instinct was to protect the other three seals and people who have these seals. But it was soon found that the other three are also dead. To prove his innocence, protect himself from being murdered, caught by the police and to protect the secret of The Krishna Key, he has no other choice but to decrypt the secret himself.
On the other hand, there is a poor little rich boy who grew up to believe that he is the final avatar of Krishna, it turns out that he is no one but a serial killer.
Will this serial killer be able to kill Professor Saini, who can trust only two people in this situation, a doctoral student and criminal lawyer? Or Professor Saini and his team will manage to protect this secret? The book revolves around this escapade.
My Views: Anyone who has read Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons, and The Vinci Code (You can read my book review of this book here) can see the resemblance between this book and Dan Brown’s books. The book is like an Indian version of these books, a 40-year-old Professor, trying to protect himself and a long-kept secret for the sake of the world and then there is love story emerging, the alikeness is very apparent. But is it that much interesting? Well, you have to decide it on your own. For me, I did not enjoy the book a lot.
First of all, the character development is abysmal. I just could not feel anything for them. There was no ‘Omg! Is he going to die?’ kind of nerve-wracking questions going on in my mind. I was just reading the book, it failed to catch my emotions and captivate me emotionally.
The ending is so bland, that it got me disappointed. The reason why this serial killer became a serial killer and believed that he is the last avatar is altogether dismaying. I just could not believe that someone is shown so intelligent and then he is doing things which can question his intelligence.
Because it is inspired by Dan Brown’s books, I got my expectations high. Dan Brown’s books are very adventurous, full of actions, nail-biting moments. It is like we are watching a movie, but with this book, as I said, I was not captivated at all.
Moreover, the love story emerging was so out of the blue, there were no moments which could make-believe to readers that these two characters are starting to get attracted towards each other, at one point author just threw the love story at the readers.
Now, let’s not say that this book is not at all a read-worthy. There is one good thing about it, and that is the amount of research which the author has done to write this book. I won’t be wrong in saying that I kept on reading this book because of these interesting things which the author has depicted in puzzle form. There were so many things about the Vedas, Mahabharata, Dwarika, Sanskrit shlokas, some anagrams that I did not know about and I was fascinated enough to look up for them on google. The author has so willingly presented a few fictional things about the mythology that for a moment I believed in them. These puzzles, anagrams, reference to mythology made this book interesting for me.
Coming to the writing style, the story is told as a parallel between Krishna’s story and the story of Professor Saini, just like his other book Chanakya’s Chant. I think the book is quite easy to understand, but frankly, for me, I think it’s the writing style which can seize a reader on an emotional level and this book failed to do that for me.
Overall, for me, this was a below-average book.
Recommendations: Read this book for two reasons, one if you are history and mythological buff and second if you are an Ashwin Sanghi’s fan.
Ratings: 2/5
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