Of courage and indomitable spirit(s)

Vikrant Parmar

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If combined with finesse, mythology and mystery yield stories that stand the test of time. In case of The Demon Hunter Of Chottanikkara, S V. Sujatha’s debut novel, the combination is just about right, though not perfect. 

This ‘supernatural thriller’, which is the author’s offering to the Mother Goddess, is set in Chottanikkara, Kerala, where, Devi, a young girl, is a demon-slayer. She has a brigade of horrifying apparitions to deal with — Brahmarakshasa, priests who commit crimes and turn into demons once they die, Jalpisaacha, spirits that hide in village wells and possess humans who willy-nilly enter them; Kollivaipei, fire-breathing monsters, Mohini Pisaacha, who seduce men after transforming into voluptuous women, Vethaalam, spirits that cling to the backs of unsuspecting villagers and ride them relentlessly; Pretha, who devour half-burnt corpses in cremation grounds and many more. The author has delved deep into the world of nether-world ghouls and showcased an army in her novel, which has a Marquez-like magic-realism feel to it. 

Devi, ‘who did not fit into the conventional image of a warrior’, has, nonetheless, the ‘ability to understand the speech of demons, and even birds and animals, and communicate with them’. Deified as ‘Amme Devi’ by the villagers, she performs ‘exorcisms and demon binding rituals’, each time rescuing the hapless villagers from some blood-thirsty phantom.

Ferrying her in all deadly missions is an enormous lion, Ugra; another tribute to the Mother Goddess. Devi is the pupil of the ‘great and mighty’ Parsurama, who, a la the famous guru Dronacharya, sprinkles pearls of wisdom like ‘a warrior is only as strong as his mind’.

Devi fearlessly wields her deadly weapon, the urumi, ‘a flexible sword with a wooden hilt’, to slaughter demons; she never backs out from any challenge, even if it means facing poisoned darts — which she survives with the help of a venom-sucking ‘apothecary’, Vasuki. One after another, she marauds the evil monsters till she comes across an elusive predator, which presents an existential dilemma like none she had faced before. While the task is almost insurmountable, the solution is even worse; it’s her indomitable spirit that is finally put through a baptism by fire. The author has done a commendable job as far as stitching a story is concerned, which revolves around the supernatural, but she has left a few chinks in the wall and also faltered at setting the desired pace of the narrative. The story meanders in the initial phase, even as the focus shifts away from the plot to Devi’s heroics. Another baffling fact is that while at one point Devi is killing deadly fiends at will, at the other she is holding the hand of her father and walking across the local market like a little girl! 

The author has, however, presented the women folk, including Meenamma, Ela and Miricha, in an empowered light. Her hold on language and diction is appreciable too. 

Overall a good read, but for the non-connoisseur!