The bestselling author of books like Hungry Gods, Garbage Beat, and Item Girl, Richa Lakhera is back with an intense and gripping tale of the supernatural and horror with a female combatant set in the current times. Lakhera’s Contamination has glowing early praise from actor Manoj Bajpayee and screenwriter and novelist Farrukh Dhondy.
An award-winning TV Journalist, several of whose books are being made into TV series, Lakhera’s Contamination is a departure from the divorced-from-reality supernatural story template of a fantasy novel. The action scenes, in keeping with the best of the genre, throb with life and excitement.
Richa’s previous books – Item Girl, a crime novel, and Garbage Beat, a satire on the Indian entertainment industry received brilliant reviews.
According to the author Contamination is a realm of supernatural powers in a contemporary setting with mythological creatures, dark forces and their phantasmic-Astras (weapons). It pits modern evil against ancient powers.
Much like mythologist Joseph Campbell’s monomyth, the chief protagonist Amba’s journey is the classic hero’s journey—from ordeals & struggle to making allies & enemies; to seeking supernatural aid and finally crossing the threshold towards resurrection & resolution. A journey that transforms her externally and internally.
Contamination is a departure from the divorced-from-reality supernatural story template of a fantasy novel, the action scenes, even as they strain credibility are constructed on a stronger scaffolding.
A reluctant hero at first, Amba’s nights are troubled by disturbing dreams that take her into parallel universes. She craves to be ordinary but her powers, which she has always kept hidden, are being slowly unmasked and she is no longer able to separate her normal life from the high stakes of being her true self.
Contamination also explores brother-sister strained relationships, and the power play between the genders, relation with her mentors, envy, pride, lust, greed, coward to courage, faith, kindness and it is about the transformative power of forgiveness.
Any good vs evil is only as good as the villain, and the psychopathic jailer Colonel Rosie Madbull is as evil as they come. Fleeing from Madbull’s fearsome jail, Amba is destined to fulfill many a prophecy. In an epic battle, she is forced to unleash the terrifying Furies and their phantasmic-Astras. Hunting with them will take Amba to the very edge of being human…’
The first madness was that she was born. That the Gods stuffed her into a bag of tiny human skin. The second madness was, the Gods stuffed her inside—with us. “Let her die. Patala has her eye on her,” warned the Village-Shaman. Twenty years on, Amba is too embroiled in her human wars to bother about the voices inside her. Gun-toting psychopath Colonel Rosie Madbull is inflicting dreadful vengeance on her people to get his hands on the gold which is discovered under their soil. But he and his army of bloodthirsty criminals have to confront the battle-hardened Amba. But she is no ordinary girl. Fleeing from Madbull’s jail, into the fearsome Jotsoma forest, Amba is destined to fulfil many a prophecy—from seeking refuge inside a monster buffalo and coming face to face with the menacing Patala and her demonic pet Domovai. But her ceremony of ordeals is far from over. In an apocalyptic battle between the good and the evil, she will be forced to unleash the terrifying Furies. But they don’t come alone. They bring the insidious others, who are now out of control. Hunting with them will take Amba to the very edge of being a human.
Editor-in-chief Shantanu Ray Chaudhuri says, “The supernational/horror/ combat is a genre we don’t do very well. Richa’s Contamination is a welcome addition to and experimentation with the genre, with a kickass female protagonist. The action, often over-the-top, is very visual and one can see the potential this has for a visual adaptation.’