the timepass nukkad: November 2011

You know what’s the ONLY pleasant part of having a dislocated shoulder, 2 broken teeth, a seriously hit jawbone, ear & numerous scratches – You get to UPDATE your BLOG.

I am sure each of the Chetan Bhagat’s fans was raring to go at his newest release – Revolution 2020 – Love. Corruption. Ambition. As an avid fan of his, I was no different though work kept me aloof from his book for quite some time. I got the chance to put my hands on the book last night, it took me 3 hours to complete the 296 page novel at one go & here goes the expert review.

I have just finished reading it and I must say that I am not impressed.

First things first – I really liked the “Pradhan” & “IAS” connection. Hope this Pradhan becomes an IAS someday as well. :)

Well I will have to admit the fact that, the story offers nothing new or extraordinary. It’s just another love triangle with not-so-many twists in it. The ending is clearly inspired by Bollywood stories where the protagonist has a change of heart.

Not a very engaging prologue to start with. It just does not have the substance to create that air of mystery which a “Five Point Someone” had. To a large extent he manages to keep the readers glued to the story, but I really believe he has got a bit carried away than my liking. Why should a guy who has only loved a woman through out his life give up on her so easily? And then he just vanishes away from her life.

He gets a bit carried away with the sensual (read “sexual”) scenes at the end of the story I guess. Though his earlier books also had similar things, somehow I did not feel this time it could match the flow of the story.

Here all the 3 protagonists lack the grit of their character. Gopal had done very little himself to have all the money and the fame. He seemed to be the most confused character among all. As usual, the female lead of a Chetan Bhagat story has a negative side attached to her. I swear I am unable to figure out her & validate or justify her actions no matter how much I give it a thought. Raghav, to me, does no better than a Tushar Kapur or a Zayed Khan in a multi-starrer Bollywood movie. The final “Kal Ho Na Ho” minus the hero dying act by Gopal was touching but got kind of humdrum.

But as someone who really appreciates his writing skills, I would like to write the following lines as well.

The only thing that I feel works for Chetan Bhagat is some incidents that you can relate to and the way he paints extraordinary events for ordinary characters and you are left with the thought that yeah – this could have happened to me too.

Some of my loved lines which I found exceptional & aptly fitting to the context are

· She did not “love” me, She “owned” me.
· All three of us used to be friends in our childhood. What happened? “Life! Life happened”.
· Stupid people go to schools. Smart people own them.
· “‘Fine’ means somewhere between ‘whatever’ and ‘go to hell’ in Girlese”