So the hugely hyped third book of Chetan Bhagat is out. Here
is my take.
Plot: The story revolves around three friends Ish, Govind
and Omi. Ish is a cricket lover to the core, Omi the son of a priest who
doesn’t want to be one. And Govind is a math loving guy who wants to start his
own business. The three friends start a shop to sell sports goods, and it
works. Things seem to fine, Ish finds a young cricketer with a lot of talent
and some physical problems an decides to coach him, and Govind falls for Ish’s
sister(Typical Chetan again) until Govind, the lead protagonist starts
committing his famous “Three Mistakes”. And from there the story mainly deals
with Govind’s mistakes and how he recovers from them.
Writing style: Typical Chetan as expected, going from humour
to witty, funny to serious and dark. Well paced and very lucidly written, this
one is an easy read. The humour is much less than the earlier two novels, and
the reader only laughs a few times.
Language: Modern and colloquial, nothing new to mention.
Peppered with the slangs we can’t avoid hearing.
My view: Expected a lot from Chetan, but now I’m not quite
sure. Two of the three mistakes aren’t even proper mistakes. The first one was
unavoidable and the second one was sheer instinct. But its the second one that
brings the quality of the novel down to a critical point. I almost considered
putting the book down at that point. Chetan seems to be writing strictly for
Bollywood these days.
But the events mentioned here, like the Cricket matches, the
Ajodhya temple
issue and the subsequent riots as well
as the Gujrat earthquake have been depicted quite nicely. Chetan’s eye for
detail is as sharp as ever, and his descriptions realistic and understandable.
But character behavior does raise an issue, Govind specially seemed forced to
make all of his mistakes. And some of the parts are just plain unrealistic.
The final mention, this book makes you think about your life and the problems you’ll face. Life will throw problems at you, and they’ll often come in the guise of these "mistakes". You have noone to blame at those times but yourself. The only thing you can do is get up and try again. Don’t forget that silver lining, that small spark of light, even when everything seems dark. Mistakes will happen, we just need to learn from them. No mistakes and we don’t learn anything.
Final Cut: Not what the hype said, but an enjoyable read all
the same. The flaws
and good points balance each other. Definitely worth a read. Recommended.