Chandrakanta (novel)
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| Author | Devaki Nandan Khatri |
|---|---|
| Country | India |
| Language | Hindi |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | |
| Released |
Chandrakanta is one of the most popular Hindi novels. It was written by Devaki Nandan Khatri. It is considered as the first work of prose in modern Hindi language. This novel is believed to be so popular at that time, that people learnt the Hindi language to read it and be part of this fantasy. Khatri was a historian and was searching for some clues around the Fort of Chunar and he was so fascinated by the fort and it's mysterious design, that he could not resist himself from writing something about this.
The novel is a fantasy novel, and tells of two lovers belonging to two rival kingdoms, Naugarh and Vijaygarh. In his novel, a major part had also been played in Chunargarh (He named Chunar-fort as Chunargarh).
It was also converted into a television serial in Mid-1990s, but due to financial reasons, the serial was not completed. Besides this, the storyline of the TV serial deviated almost completely from the original book, which led to a loss of people's interest in it. In fact, many imaginary characters were introduced which were not originally in the novel.
It is a story of a beautiful young princess of Vijaygarh, Chandrakanta, who is madly in love with the young and handsome prince of Naugarh, Virendrasingh. There is great rivalry between both states as the king of Vijaygarh held Naugarh responsible for the death of his only brother. In the kingdom of Vijaygarh resides an evil man Krur singh, who is a prominent member of the king's court and dreams of marrying 'Chandrakanta', and becoming king someday . He is in fact the man who assassinated the brother of the king and made it look like an act of the enemy kingdom Naugarh. When Krur Singh fails in his endeavour to get Chandrakanta, he flees from Vijaygarh and befriends "Shivdutt", a powerful neighbouring king (of Chunargarh). He coaxes Shivdutt to get Chandrakanta by hook or crook.The whole novel captures the evil tricks of Krur singh and "Shivdutt", the helplessness of Chandrakanta and the bravery of prince Virendra Vikram, the prince of Naugadh and some of his loyal frinds.
The main features of the novel "Chandrakanta" are that it gave the concepts of "Aiyyar" and "Tilism" to Hindi literature.
An "Aiyyar" ["Aiyyara" for female] is a specialized spy in a king's service. He specializes in making disguises. An Aiyaar can make his face like any other person [even animal in some cases] by using special makeup material. He generally captures a rival and imprisons him. He then impersonates him and does things which are beneficial to his cause and damaging to his or his master's opponents.
A "Tilism" is some kind of a maze. It contains many secret locations, prisons and treasures. It has many secret inlets and outlets. It is supposed to be "broken" by a person. When a person breaks a "Tilism", all its doors are opened and all its prisoners are released. Also, that person gets the immense treasures hidden in the Tilism.
Vidhu Vinod chopra, an Indian flimmaker is producing a movie based on this novel 'Chandrakanta'. The movie is named as ' Talisman'. The Starcast has not been finalised, but Amitabh Bachan is said to be playing the role of 'Aiyyara'. So he will be seen on screen as the krur singh, which was very famous character played on the National Indian Television Network in the Mid-90's in the serial named itself 'Chandrakanta'.
The trailer of the movie was just shot few days before, to be screened it with his latest movie 'Eklavya-The royal guard', which also stars Amitabh Bachan as 'Eklavya', Sanjay Dutt, Saif Ali Khan, Vidya Balan, Jachie Shroff, Boman Irani in the Leading roles.
