"Amid the Himalayan mountain ranges to the north lies a lake. If you bathe in that lake, your heart will be cleansed. If your heart is cleansed, you will be blessed with good fortune. Why do the likes of us need good fortune and what not? Isn’t it enough if the heart is cleansed just a little?" Probably, we can find the essence of the novel Manasarovar by Ashokamitran in the above quote. Le me borrow some words from the blurb to give an idea about the story: ’A profound meditation on the human quest for faith and inner peace’ ’the early 1960s, also known as the golden age of Indian cinema. Satyan Kumar, reigning screen god, moves from Mumbai to Madras film industry. There he meets Gopalan, a middling studio writer. An inexplicable connection forms between the two men across the chasms of class and language. But just as an enduring bond springs up, tragedy intervenes. Gopalan’s son mysteriously dies and his wife’s dementia acquires homicidal overtones. Both men flounder as they try to understand their roles in these seemingly random events that radically transform their lives.’
The novel’s narrative is a multi layered one. If we are not satisfied by a boat journey we may dig deep to experience the undercurrents. It will take us to the same destination but the experience will be entirely different. On the one hand, you can associate with the story of relation between a super star and a screenplay writer who get associated somehow. When we consider the novel from this angle, the story didn’t move much further after the middle way. Means the light readers may find the story interesting till middle and after that it will lose the charm. Through the novel, we get close to the star and his inner thoughts which will expose many masks in film industry. "A new film today is nothing but a film released the day before yesterday with a few minor alterations." The book shows a mirror to some realities in the film world and human life.
The story can be viewed as men’s quest for confession and meditation as well. The friends, Gopalan and Sathyan Kumar, are seekers of inner peace. Sathyan Kumar’s attraction to Gopalan may be illogical for people who looks it from the top. However, when we get the clue that Gopalan looks like Mehar Baba - the silent mystic, that relation gets an entirely different dimension. It is inner peace that, Sathyan Kumar seeking. Gopalan too is on the same path. He however does not look at Sathyan Kumar, but to Saami of Hanuman Temple who in fact is like Mehar Baba of south. Here we can observe the contradiction beautifully portrayed by Ashokamitran. One follow the look alike and one follow the real, even when the real can be another shadow. It is significant that Sathyan Kumar continues his search for Gopalan on the day Mehar Baba chooses to open his mouth. Here, the author stresses the importance of confession in getting inner peace. Sathyan Kumar is a sinner. He is used to it. Even on the day of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s death he cannot block the wishes of lust. He is seeking peace but continue to destroy other’s lives. "A man is tirelessly doing something throughout his life. A great revolution occures during his lifetime. His country itself change beyond recognition. But he spends his whole lifetime without changing in anyway, till he passes away anonymously on the streets." Human vanity and ignorance decorate human life with struggles and hatred. On the brinks of collapse, he stop and looks back to think : "Will everything in my consciousness that brings me shame and agony reach a state of serenity? Can I smash and throw away this cycle of guilt to live again with a pristine heart?" Will he find his Manasarovar to restart his life in the physical world? It is in this layer the author scores a point. However, the road to Manasarovar could have been described in much better way. I mean, the flow of reading is been hindered from where Gopal’s journey to Saami begins. Characters continue to peep in from every angle, which is a not so welcome distraction. The climax somehow compensated is a consolation.
In the third angle, the novel helps us to look at India’s freedom struggle and the affect of the two leaders, (i.e. Gandhi and Nehru) on the country. Here the author seems learned a class or two from RK Narayan’s school of writing. Gandhi / Nehru friendship is the repeating subject of RKN novels. In Manasarovar, the writer reflects some of Nehru through Sathyan Kumar and more of Gandhi through Gopalan. The Nehru angle is been concealed to an extend well, but the Gandhi angle was given with expressive hints which makes the deep fishing easier to reduce the fun reading it. Even when I do not endorse many of Gandhi’s principles in personal life (thanks to my reading of ’my experiments with truth’) I feel the author fail to give the due respect to both leaders. If RKN is more sympathetic to English cause, it is a relief that Ashokamitran is not trying to sell English films to the readers. He says, "English cinema is remote from English reality - and English reality is very far removed from Indian reality".
There are four major characters in the novel. Sathyan Kumar, Gopalan, Gopalan’s wife Jhambakam and Extra artist turned Satyankumar’s house mistress, Shyamala. The author opens the mind of Sathyan Kumar quite well. However, the key to the minds of other three major characters were kept under wrap, for readers to guess. Some situations in the novel are heartening, some twist, especially the truth revealed in the climax is excellent. The novel moves some time faster and some time slow. Generally interesting but dragging in a quarter just before the climax, the book is a good read to very good read but falls short of the excellent tag.
Overall, I felt the book is recommended for a serious light reading or a light serious reading. A mix of both. "...look at this tree. It is impossible to say whether this is one tree or two - banyan or peepul. Truth and falsehood also tend to become intertwined like this, so we can’t tell one apart from the other" True.
My rating: 3.5 stars
PS1: The novel’s translation to English is done quite brilliantly by N.Kalyan Raman.
PS2: The publishers, Penguin books downgraded its standard where the paper quality used for this book is completely waste. More than two people asked me, why the book is printed in such a cheap paper? Why Penguin?