Arihant Dehumanized by Shubhan Balvally brims with nationalism, military adventure, romance, and action. This is my third book from the author. In fact, previous two books were also based on Arihant. Arihant is an android robot which was built by one professor in the first book who was killed by some greedy businessman.
Despite all odds, the legacy of Arihant continues. Since I have read all three books in line, I can understand the development of the main character Arihant in all the books. But still you can read all the novels standalone too.
This title Arihant Dehumanized works in a reverse order. Shubhan takes the readers to Indo-Pak conflicts at Siachen Glacier. The Pakis are fighting with full wrath and power and were about to capture the peak but they were interrupted by a troop of android robots like Arihant. The issue gets elevated at an international level. Some conferences happen and it is ordered to humanize the robots if they wanted to be involved in the army battle.
The work starts. They choose Arihant and work on him. He is made into a human. He now acts like a normal human with feelings for friendship and love. As soon as he gets conscious, his feelings of love for Anjali resurface. He becomes romantic, sidelining his basic duty, which is to protect the nation with the Indian army.
Among all books, this novel is lengthy and shuttles between past and present when Arihant struggles with his memories of Anjali. But he is not aware that with time a lot has changed like her marital status, she is now currently in relationship with Suraj. Due to Anjali, Arihant and Suraj develop a dust up, which is interesting to observe.
The traverse of the novel is huge. I also got to know the story of other side of the border i.e. Pakistan and Gilgit-Balistan. Even Pakistan prepares its army of robots called Jihad. So the story becomes a battle ground for rivalry…General Farrukh vs. Commander Dhingra, Jorawar vs. Abdul Quadeer, android robot Jihad vs. Arihant and much more. All the action and adventure comes from the army side.
So often, at all junctures, there comes a lot of riveting military drama and action. I am not giving up much in the spoilers. Do read it and enjoy it. The best part is Arihant’s romantic snatches. He is at best in this novel. But let me tell you that due to many reasons his inventors go back to make him a robot once again. That is another story in the novel. I enjoyed the novel like anything, though took time to get it scratched on my mind and heart. Even from narration point of view, this is far better than the other versions. I hope more Arihant books come in the future. I could be addictive if it continuous.
If you liked my review, please go ahead and order your copy from Amazon/Kindle.
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