Seven point something.. out of TEN.
It is almost two years since wrote a review about any Novel and that too was a Novel by the same author ; Five point someone. Not that I am a prolific reader particularly of contemporary fiction. This time too it was coincidence that my five day long trip to Delhi, alone gave me enough time for a such venture. Coincidentally again I purchased this book ( The three Mistakes of my life ) too on Nagpur Platform for the same Rs.95/- and happlily so in view of the inflation. Apart from anything else Chetan Bhagat gets his pricing right.. which is essential for the “price sensitive” Indian consumer ( I beg your pardon but I had to use the more commercial word ‘consumer’ instead of ‘reader’ in the specific context.).
I have deliberately avoided reading a review on this Novel on MS or any other site lest I should lose my freedom due to inevitable bias. I will read any Reviews only after posting mine. So much to the self-centered scribbling ( naa… typing), I will now get down to business.
In late 2000, a young boy in Ahmdabad, ‘Govind dreamt of owning a business. To accommodate friends’ Ish and Omi’s passion, they open cricket shop. However nothing comes easy in a turbulent city. To realize their dreams they will have to face it all--- religious politics, calamities, unacceptable love and above all their own mistakes. Will they make it? Can an individuals dreams overcome the nightmares offered by real life? Can we succeed despite afew mistakes? *…… the back cover summary of Novel without revealing much. I hoe it doesnot qualify for plagiarism on my part.
NO IT ISNOT ABOUT ANY MISTAKES COMMITTED BY CHETAN BHAGAT... Even if he did he would not tell us....The Story of the three friends told by the author in Autobiographical style similar to “Five point something” identifies the story teller with Govind an Agnostic, lower middle class , intelligent business oriented young man of about 21-22 years age struggling to eke out a living and dreaming big. He beleives that with his brains and zeal he could oneday make it big…. May be he will..oneday...
The other two characters viz Omi and Ish both Hindu boys of similar lower middle class backgrounds (all from Ahmedabad) go thorough the story that takes several twists and turns. As the author claims it to be based on real life events of Govind and others, you cannot comment much about the choice of story and plot.
I can pint out several positive points about the Novel viz:
+ The story is well narrated in most parts
++ The authors’ chice of a “secular topic” ( the contents are biographical but the meesage stands secular what ever that word means).
+ The grit with which the three chracters stand together through thick and thin of life is really exemplary particularly in view of the claim as a “real life story”.
+ There are several good one liners that point to the good story telling ability and introduce a sense of serious comedy.
+ Here again the storytelling toes lines similar to his first Novel and one can easily finish it two to three spells.
Some of the Negatives could be :
# Frequent use of F--- words which without necessarily making it more ‘realistic’ make it bit trivial.
# Author’s clear bias right from the beginning against some characters like Govind’s friend Omi, his Hindu leader ‘Bittoo Mamaa’ & his son and Parekhji are too difficult to neglect and probably reflect Author’s own biases against one particular sub community. This was avoidable.
# Though there is a lot of treatment about the violence surrounding Govind there is very little effort to balance it with the ‘causative’ violence elsewhere. This probably is because the author is mainly guided by ‘Govind’s version, that way its OK.
# The author’s Negative bias against the studious and the religious Characters stands out in both his Novels and can make it boring to read his future works due to typecasting of ideas.
# Though spelling mistakes are lower in this novel, they are there.
# The treatment of last few paras dealing with personal involvement of “trio” in some veryyy violent scenes reeks of some overdoing by author.
Continuing any further will make this review boring and Probably longer than allowed for a normal Review Post. May be more in Part- II if I could come up with one…