I was pleasantly surprised to read the news that the wonderful malayalam book 'Rendam Oozaham' written by the much respected M T Vasudevan Nair in 1983 is being made into a film.
It has been one of the books that has had a profound influence on my thinking. I was in the final year of my Under Graduation program, when the book hit the stands, and was an immediate best seller.
The book is about the Bheeman, the second of the Pandavas. The narration is a different take on Maharbharatha, as seen through the eyes of Bheema, who, as fate would have it, had to play second fiddle throughout his life - and hence the title ' Rendam oozham' or Second Turn.
Bheema was second in the line to become the King, but was under the shadow of Yudhishtira, considered to be the upholder of Dharma. Bheema was not less intelligent, but Yudhishtira always treated him as good only for physical valour, but deficient in thinking, much to Bheemas chagrin. Likewise he loses out to Arjuna in his quest to get Panchalis affection, who was married to all the 5 brothers. Panchali always resented Bheema, looked up at him as uncouth but prefered Arjuna. Bheemas valour knows no bounds, but it is always Arjuna who gets the credit. Thus throughout his life, Bheema came second best - An amazing take on the great epic.
But what impressed me most was the demystifying of the Mahabharatha by giving logical explanation to many events and acts considered superhuman. Thus we have the spear given to Karna by Lord Indra, as a quid pro quo for removing his kavacha and kundala with a proviso that it can be used only once, depicted as a spear that can be launched from a mechanical gadget on a one time basis, but that cannot be refitted with another spear. Logical explanations such as this, helped me and people of my genre to get explanations for the unexplainable in the epic. The book made us think out of the box. The brilliant drawings of Artist Namboothiri depicting the various characters added to the enjoyment of the book.
And the reader would share the anguish of the Second best, as we all could identify with Bheeman, for we had been second best many a time in our life.
Rendam Oozham gave a more humane and plausible view of Mahabharatha and for that I am thankful to MT, a writer whom I admire.
Now let us await the film, which is likely to be multilingual, thus benefitting even the audience in other parts of the world.
