To start with let us be clear that Chetan Bhagat is no Arundhati Roy or Vikram Seth. He is no a literary genius who writes for Nobel or Booker prizes. He is a average writer who writes novels in simple colloquial English which the great Indian English speaking mass would understand and enjoy. His novels are not for graduates specializing in English for analysis.
If we have this clarity in mind then you wont be dissapointed by this novel. I think I would rate this the second best after 5 point someone which has now become a cult. Mind it - its a cult and not a classic. Anyway the book picks up from where 5 point someone left.
The author narrates his life story post IIT Delhi. He gets admission in IIMA, meets a girl who happens to be a South Indian and he a North Indian. There are 5 Acts in the book. The first Act about his love story in IIMA which ends with both the guy and the girl getting lucrative job. Second Act is about how the guy wins over the girls parents and third act is vice versa. In fourth act everything goes wrong and in fifth act everything falls in place and the story ends with everyone living happily ever after.
My take on this is that the story is written keeping in mind that it would be made into a movie. Probably post One Night at the call center, CB writes stories to be made in to movie. Five point someone became a rage coz the author wrote a story not a movie script. This book is a out and out movie script waiting to be made a movie. Some portions become too dramatic to be real life as claimed by the author.
Having said that the book is entertaining and quick paced. Anyone who went to B School would love and relate to the first Act. The guy and the girl spent 2 years together with the girl staying in the guys room. It did bring back memories of my B School when this was quite a norm. In this book,
What the book does beautifully is it brings out the cultural differnece between north and south indians. The author might have made fun of the south indians through out the book but he has done the same for north indian too. It shows how much we stereotype people of other regions.
North Indians stereotype anyone down south as Madrasi and dark skinned and always trying to trap fair skinned north indians like sri devi and rekha. Both the positives and negatives of the north and south indian communities have been shown in a comic way which might be offensive to the people of this community but then the author has no such intentions. Read this book and enjoy his observations which are correct and entertaining.
The book as usual carries its social message of unity in diversity and no dowry and some more. But it doesnt become too preachy to kill the fun of the book.At Rs 95 I think this book is a good value for money. Atleast you will have a good laugh and end up with a feel good factor. Read this book and enjoy