Reading a Chetan Bhagat novel used to be considered a non-reader’s approach to reading in my circles. Well, he did start the Light & Hearty Campus Novel revolution with Five Point Someone. Now, with the campus novel market flooding with books selling for profanity or casual humor or just relevance to a reality you’re aware of, you’d think Chetan Bhagat’s novel would lose the charm? No, Sir. Every new book seems like a level-up with this guy. Nothing could I respect more.
REVOLUTION 2020 is a coming of age saga of Gopal Mishra, a poor chap hailing from Varanasi, and his childhood Friends, Aarti & Raghav. Now, unlike most of my fellow Reviewers who spill the beans in a ‘Review’, I’ll just tell you about the After-taste this book’s going to leave with you.
Like all Chetan Bhagat books, this one goes high on the emotional quotient, which hooks 80% of the readers out there and makes the book a sure shot win. However, the story brings out a lot of conflict that the Typical Youth of India is going through. Now, I use the word ‘Typical’ here because this novel is about your everyday characters in a North Indian City, there are no Illiterate Servants, no Tribal warfare & no murderers.
(yeah, comparison is inevitable when you review two books, both coming of age & both of people who were wronged by a corrupt system. The other book I’m talking about here is THE WHITE TIGER – Read Review – Click here )
A Guide to Revolution, and how a Girl can ruin everything.
It talks about one guy’s rising up in a politically controlled education empire, and another guy’s uprising against the political dominance in the same society. And then there’s the girl who keeps bouncing between the two like the only dream she has in life is to have THE RIGHT GUY. (Reading a Chetan Bhagat novel is not much different from watching a Bollywood flick). One very weird fact about the story – the damsel in distress has no girl pals whatsoever.
The best part about REVOLUTION 2020 also happens to be the funniest. Bhagat’s depiction of a normal Indian guy under the pressure of Education, Society & Parents is impeccable and his depiction of the chirpy Indian girl who tends too be a little too corny is way too real (Yes, experiences with the wrong ‘female-kind’ tend to tell you a lot about them). These two characters are very real, you might notice that too. The funny part about that is (well, firstly, a personal opinion) that these are the very kind of people whom people go around calling fake. A guy who pities himself too much & a girl who lives in a dreamland is still digestible, but it does get a little too filmy in the book. Watch out for that.
However, the Character of Raghav, the rebellious & ambitious prodigy who quits a good fortune for the sake of his passion is really inspiring. You might just be reminded of the days you raised your voice. (If you ever had the balls for that).Critically speaking, the book is a little off on editing, and the language comes off a little like a direct word-to-word translation from Hindi.
All in all, I’d say give this book a read. Its not a campus novel. Its not a mainstream novel. Its Different.
And as I say, off-stream work should always be appreciated, it says a nice f*ck you to the mainstream stuff that gets repeated every year just for the sake of some company’s profit.
