V.J. James’s slim novel parses complex issues through contemporary characters modelled on the Pandavas from the Mahabharata
When I was an undergrad, the then-recent film Into the Wild (2007), about a disillusioned young American who retreated into the Alaskan wilderness and eventually both starved and accidentally poisoned himself to death, was all the rage. ‘Society’, Eddie Vedder’s existential anthem from the movie, declared: “Society, you’re a crazy breed/ Hope you’re not lonely without me.” What I disliked about this technically accomplished but curiously soulless movie was its unsubtle, soft-focus romanticisation of voluntary seclusion as well as mental illness. V.J. James’s recently published novel-in-translation, Dattapaharam: Call of the Forest (translated by Ministhy S.), also investigates a young man’s forest retreat, his quest to achieve “unity with nature”. But the book does so with such startling insights and depth of characterisation that it leaves unidimensional, wannabe-Walden narratives like Into the Wild far, far behind.
