The Rise of Sivagami: Book 1 of Baahubali - Before the Beginning Paperback – 15 Mar 2017

Writing a book based on the characters/plots and settings of a movie series is not as common as a movie based on novel. It's a different kind of challenge and that's why I like the idea of writer and the Franchise owners to create a prequel series of the Movie. Baahubali is a worldwide phenomena now so obviously they had to create something on quite a large scale (somewhat similar to the movies) with major involvement of few of the on screen famous characters to cash in their popularity but at the same time it had to be interesting and unique. Well! they succeeded at almost every front except the one which was most important - "Uniqueness". Right from the characters to plots or even the writing style, everything is very much inspired from A Song of Ice and Fire. Just to give you an idea-

Shivagami: A fierce young girl Her father was a good man but branded as traitor and executed by king so she swear to destroy the royal family. She acted as a lone wolf and tried to overcome all the odds by herself. There were times when she was trying to hide her fear and was thinking about the lessons from his uncle/mentor to keep her calm, I can almost read the famous line "Fear cuts deeper than swords" in those paras. Ring any bells? Yeah! She is the Arya Stark of Mahishmathi.

Skandadasa: Probably the only decent man in King's court He became Mahapradhana (as good as King's Hand) in the later part of the book. He is a kindhearted and just person devoted to his country and strictly against the corrupt men and wrong and biased practices and traditions. This is the reason few other politically influential people dislike him. He is clearly the Eddard Stark of this story with some small revisions.

Hidumba: A politically powerful dwarf A loudmouth but a man with important connections, always involved in the major events and conspiracies of Mahishmathi. He is so similar to Tyrion Lannister that I always read his dialogue in Peter Dinklage's voice in my head.

Vaithalikas: A community claims to be the actual owner of Gauriparvat and Mahishmathi, they are ferocious fighters and have an uncrowned king of their own. They are the Targaryens (but without dragons) of this series .

Brihannala: A Eunuch(???) S/he is conspiring something big in league with Vaithalikas. Baahubali's version of Varys

Pattaraya: A great strategist, his ultimate aim is to overthrow the kingdom but he sets smaller goal to avoid suspicion; and though he don't have the ultimate controls on brothels but he used them for his plans in similar ways as Petyr Baelish did in aSoIaF.

Similarly the kingdom has 2 princes, Elder one Bijjaladev is very cruel and spoiled same as Joffrey while the younger one Mahadeva isn't a great warrior, kindhearted but gullible at the same time. He certainly reminds you of Tommen.

Gundu Ramu: A fat coward boy but a loyal friend of one of the main characters. He couldn't be more like Samwell.

Achi Nagamma: The one who's independent of any banner and fighting for poor, helpless and needy villagers. She is leading the all women vigilante army and more like a female version of Beric Dondarrion

Apart from the above mentioned characters and plot similarities the writing style is also similar to aSoIaF and though it is interesting to have chapters from different characters' point-of-view but its not as effective as it was in aSoIaF series. The main reason is sheer plot vastness of aSoIaF, "George RR Martin" has a much bigger universe than "Anand Neelakantan" so his each character's story POV take you to almost entirely different part of the seven kingdoms while in this novel even with so many different characters almost the entire story is set in Mahismathi it self. GRRM never mixed 2 POVs in single chapter but that had happened quite a few times here. Also almost half of the chapters (barring the climax and few others in between) don't have that many pages so as soon as the momentum is building up the chapter ends. Plus there's a lot of sexual content but it's not as justified as it was in GRRM's creation.

But all these things doesn't mean that this book is not interesting. For me it is something like Eragon Series "inspired from few great hits but still worth reading". As I said, with the Baahubali book series they had the luxury of few well known and wildly loved/hated characters in the form of Shivagami, Kattappa & Bijjaladev and they have utilized them beautifully. Also after initial similarities/inspirations the book takes it's own story forward, which is fast paced and full of turns and twists. I specially loved the last few chapters related with Mahamakam and the final twists in the last page leave you awestruck. I have read in the acknowledgements that Anand finished this book in 109 days which is quite unbelievable because it never gives you the feeling of a book finished in hurry, even if you consider the inspirations from other books.

Overall it's a good effort and now after initial built-up I expect better and more original content from next 2 books of the series. Looking forward to it

What does this book have that the movie Bahubali doesn't?

The very beginning! The past. The life of Sivagami and the way she has become the way she is.

Anand Neelakantan weaves a beautiful story of Sivagami in midst of the geographical, social and cultural milieu of Mahishmati empire. Sivagami's circumstances, her traversing through the myriad shades of the Mahishmati empire, the political cauldron and the social structure - all seems to resonate with the reader as one progresses in reading the book.

To understand the movie much better, do read this book, for it shall complete your understanding of the story of Bahubali.  Sivagami undergoes the whole rigmarole of  getting the things set right for herself and in the process of her expedition leads to interesting discoveries. Interestingly these discoveries are known to the reader and not to the various characters in the book.

The narrative flow of the book is good and Anand keeps the reader engaged except for a certain slowness in the story in between. This lull effect is good in a way since we get to process all the information in the story till that point. (It could be a damper for some)

This is first part of the series on Sivagami and am looking forward to the next book.  

The author is a best selling author from Kerala state of India. Known for his previous super hits like Asura- The Tale of the Vanquished and Ajaya Series of books, he ventured into this ambitious prequel to recent historic Indian blockbuster movie “Bahubali” directed by SS Rajamouli of Andhra Pradesh. Known for his fiction writing skills, the author remains as the darling of epic fiction lovers of the country.
Storyline:
The story begins with the woes of the downtrodden in the mighty kingdom of Maahishmati, somewhere in the central part of India, near the Mahishi river, protected by their revered sacred mountain called Gauri Parvat. Sivagami, a young lady in her teens , whose father has been killed by the orders of the king for treason and treachery, is admitted into the royal orphanage, by her Uncle. She under immense pressure and vengeance to destroy the royal lineage of Maahishmati patiently waits in the orphanage, only to be unexpectedly be courted by the Prince Mahadeva, younger brother of the aggressive and cruel crown prince Bijjala Deva. The later being an arrogant, tyrant, evil and a womanizer, always treats his subjects as slaves and is highly feared and hated amongst his peer groups. His slave Kattappa, a die-hard duty bound and loyal servant always protects Bijjala Deva from many threats and dangers that the later faces in his day to day life, but is never respected in return. Meanwhile, some of the evil noblemen of the kingdom like Pattaraya wants to profit by smuggling the secret Gauri dhooli, a strange powder extracted from the self glowing blue and rare Gauri Kanta stones, mined from the womb of Gauri Parvat, to the enemy vassal states of Maahishmati. The generations old secret of Maahishmati’s undefeated victory saga in wars is attributed to its weapons moulded with mixture of Gauridhooli and metal. Sivagami, the highly committed and talented girl accidentally saves the life of the king Somadeva from a sudden coup attempt by the rebel Vaithalikas, on the auspicious Mahamaakam festival day, just at the time when she attempts to recover the secret book of her father, written in a strange ancient language, from the chambers of the Prime Minister, Skandadasa. The story ends here with Sivagami rewarded with the title of a Bhoomipathi and her father’s treachery forgiven for her act, surprising her totally and giving her a chance to be in the governing system and thus plot to destroy the kingdom in the future.
Pros : The book is cleverly plotted with umpteen number of characters in a series of events right from the beginning till the end. The author’s skill to manoeuvre the reading is well maintained. The way in which lower castes and peasants were treated in the ancient kingdoms wherein only the upper castes and royal family reaped the benefits while the former always suffered and forced to a life full of sheer poverty, slavery, insults, homicide, genocide, child trafficking and forced prostitution is well elicited. The author was successful in portraying that such blind dictatorship rule of any country would lead to revolt and coups somewhere or the other. The effect of Bahubali movie on the book seemed to be very high as the reader , if already watched the movie, would correlate each and every character of the book with the real movie characters as long as he/she is reading, in the back of his/her mind.
Cons: The story started with a bang but somehow there is some loss of lustre in the first half with some boredom masking the story but picked up pace after the middle and maintained the tempo till the end. Since it is the Book One of the series, many characters in the story have been left unfinished. I find that there are too many characters introduced but hope that they will find their life in the next book. Somehow, the actual historic movie Bahubali 1 and 2 seem to have shielded the overall effect of the book. Slightly felt that the book would have had a greater punch if it was written and released even before the movie. Some negligible print errors are spotted here and there.

My rating of this book is 3.25 out of 5