Book: Sudhi Kannan: An Elephantic Adventure
Author: Krishna
Publishing House: Blackbuck Publication
Pages: 292 pages
Cost: Rs 180
Sudhi Kannan: An Elephantic Adventure is a book about a notorious little kid Sudhi and his unconventional and quirky father Kannan. The protagonist, Sudhi is 10 years old, and is in the 5th grade while Kannan, a single father is the owner of an advertising firm in Mumbai. The father-son duo, tired of their monotonous schedules decide to take a break, and ‘bunk’ a day to escape to the famous tourist destination near Mumbai- the Elephanta caves. The unique relationship and camaraderie between a father and son is beautifully captured, as Kannan acts more like a friend and breaks the mold of a typical Indian dad.
While Kannan is the 'cool' dad, and supports Sudhi with his mischiefs most of the times, he also struggles with bringing up a child as troublesome as Sudhi, alone as a single parent. This is where the unconventional father-son relationship strikes the readers as heart touching.
While on the trip, Sudhi and Kannan are joined by Sudhi’s classmate Pooja and her mother, and when all of them are aboard a ferry to the island when they’re taken hostage by the dangerous terrorist Boss. Boss knows hypnosis, and the story goes further with a lot of twists, turns, hypnotized soldiers and bullets being fired from everywhere. And thus starts the ‘elephantic’ adventure.
Though characters in the book seem very fresh and not run-of-the-mill with an exciting plot, the story gets a tad little slow and descriptive in some parts and could’ve been much more compact with a few edits. The book is among the very few books in the recent times, by Indian authors which are targeted at younger readers having an adventurous story. Though the story is new, and the language quite simple, the dialogues sound very funny quite a few times. The book is also riddled with a lot of grammatical errors which should be corrected. Wrong grammar is a book lover's worst nightmare.
Also, a lot of the chapters seem to drag in a few places, and slow down the pace of a story which should be very fast in the moment considering the scenario which is so electrifying. The book will become a smarter and a compact read if some of the redundant parts are done away with, and will give the story the much needed pace which it lags in some places.
The book has everything to engage the younger lot, thrill, drama, action and excitement with varied characters. With the protagonists living in Powai, Mumbai the story aptly encapsulates the hectic and fast life of the metro, and the need to break free from daily boring schedules.
Author Krishna brings to us a very out-of-the box story with new characters, and has opened up a vastly undiscovered horizon of children's books by Indian writers with Sudhi Kannan, and promises more such adventurous stories in the future, which would be fun to read after a bit of polishing and smart editing.
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