Plot: Its the story of Gopal, Aarti and Raghav, three youngsters from Varanasi. Gopal is the son of a retired teacher and in deep in debt. Aarti, daughter of a DM and is from an elite class. Raghav, an extremely intelligent boy graduates from IIT but moves to peruse his dream Journalism. Gopal and Aarti are best-friends from school days. Gopal has a thing for Aarti who doesn't see him that way. The story revolves around how Gopal copes with his studies, high expectations of his ailing father and also trying, albeit unsuccessfully, to woo Aarti. Meanwhile Raghav and Aarti fall in love. Gopal goes through some financial and emotional turmoil and eventually leads him to become a director of his own academic institution. Raghav gets a job in top newspaper as a trainee and is determined to end corruption. Gopal's situation forces him to adopt corruption and succeed. Aarti has to balance her life and time between her boy-friend Raghav and best-friend Gopal.. As I read about the class V boy Gopal and Arti, I for a minute tried recollecting my experiences at that age and all I could recollect was the name of my class teacher, that too with the help of an old school photograph. That's about it, as far as twist-n-turns are concerned - not typical of Chetan Bhagat’s books and not the one many would like.
The characters according to me-
· GOPAL: Mr. Bhagat tried hard to make him the protagonist when he was actually an antagonist. This character was simply lame and dramatic. · ARTI: Seemed a character which went along with the wind. Her plot was clearly revolved around what Raghav and Gopal believed with no brains of her own. All she claimed throughout was to be an Air-hostess which never happened. · RAGHAV: This character was the one with certain convictions but eventually went along with the pathetic plot!! · SHUKLA: I never understood why would a politician projected as corrupt as him would do something for Gopal. Because unlike Gopal he had a family who could take his corrupt business forward.
Few Positive aspects I found in the Novel were describing the explicit details of Varanasi City. I also liked the way the chats between Gopal and Arti were captured. The book portrayed how corruption is prevalent in the education system, how bribes are taken and given at every nook-n-corner, how anyone and everyone are eligible to open educational institutions - if you have adequate land. The book also touches upon the plight of students in India and how important it is to get into one of the "top" colleges.
I guess the fact that his books have been made into movies has actually gone into his head because, this book is no less than a dramatic Hindi movie, infact far too worse. This one was disappointing for a reader like me who love his books majorly for the sarcasm and wittiness. Guess all the wittiness in Chethan Bhagat has for time being gone into SRK who is promoting his movie RA.one! ;) Man!! Forget the witty aspect; he couldn’t even cling onto his USP which was his ability to connect to the youth. Or is it that, he is unable to connect anymore as he is getting old??
I recollect earlier reading statements from Mr.Bhagat accusing Mr. Narayanamurthy (who also never managed to be in my favorites list) for calling an “IITian of poor quality”. How I wish he proved his statement right through the book. Instead, his book proved that Raghav (who wanted to be a journalist but got into IIT to please his parents, but later went onto fulfill his dream) is just another junk who wasted an IIT seat. Moron!!! Then began the sad saga of the love triangle, the “No time for love and only for work” slogan did rounds and finally the pathetic self realization happened out of the blue with no strong reason. I also failed to follow as to why the book is titled Revolution 2020. Because, even though Raghav was successful to being the politician (Mr.Shukla) behind bars through Revolution 2020 (which failed miserably in the market just like Mr.Bhagath’s actual book) his success was too short lived. If he was to bring about a revolution, he would never get back into “Dainik Bhaskar” after knowing that they do pay heed to the corrupt politicians. So the revolution never happened. It will probably happen in 2020 when his next book releases. ;)
In short:
· Read it if you like light fiction. · Not the one for you if you like to pamper your literary senses. · I would say you better start with Five Point Someone, if you haven’t read any of Chetan’s books before. · If you are too lazy to read just wait, I am sure this book has everything in it to be a Bollywood movie.
Happy Reading,
HPK!!!
