Book Review "Bindu Sarovar" by Rajendra Kher

‘Top 5 book of Maharashtra Times’ and ‘Supernatural Thriller’ on the cover and an engaging colophon involving the Chinese, a lake and alternate reality set up high expectations for this book.

Book Blurb

This is supernatural Thriller. The story of Bindu Lake takes place in the year 2023. The Chinese find some ancient archaeological artifacts and ancient manuscripts in a temple in Tibet. The manuscript talks about the existence of a particular secret object, which can help one rule the world! 

The ambitions of the Chinese rulers take wings with this treasure of information. Coincidentally they also come to know of the exact location of the object… and the deadly chase begins! This thrilling chase ends at Bindu Lake! Till reaching the Bindu Lake the ‘pilgrims’ get many mysterious, enigmatic experiences. For example, they have to cross three gates on three different planes. Crossing each gate leads them into a different kind of land. These lands are spectacular in their imagery. Surviving the chase and conquering many obstacles and many dangers along the way the hero of the novel, Vikram Bhargav, manages to reach the Bindu Lake and places the object there. That object is supposed to get neutralized after reaching Bindu Lake! 

The story begins with a journey from speedy miserable materialistic life and ends at a very peaceful place. Readers will experience the universal truth at the end. This fantastic story contains the philosophical thread as well.

“Bindu Sarovar” takes place around 2023 and revolves around an ancient box and its perilous journey through Vikram Bhargav to an all-powerful mysterious lake.

The book is written in a third person narrative. The natural scenic beauties are depicted well and the chase sequences are written perfectly. However, there are times when it becomes too philosophical and the plot breaks. The story pace becomes engaging for short durations but sometimes drags to the point where one might lose interest.

Vikram as the central character is portrayed perfectly. He takes charge, gets confused, raises doubts and feels helpless aptly. Mahanand’s portrayal as a mystery helper could had been better if he wouldn’t be so philosophical now and then. Keith, Shankar, Apoorva feel like subordinates. Tridandi fails to impress us an antagonist.

Personally I am of the favour that the book lost its natural flavour in translation. It isn’t perfect, but has its moments and can serve as a light read.

For Rajendra Kher's well attempted effort to combine philosophy, folklore, fiction and thriller my rating for “Bindu Sarovar” would be 3/5.

Overall Verdict:- Good imagination, but lacks the gripping element.

The book can be found at Amazon

Reviews from other readers can be found at GoodReads