I took this book for two reasons; one that I wasn’t in the best of my moods and wanted to read something light (chetan has a reputation for humour) and second- a friend had told me that the protagonist had same name as me - ‘Gopal Mishra’.
Both the reasons proved wrong. The story wasn’t a comedy and I could not relate to the character in any way.
Yet the story kept me hooked. There is a thing about Chetan Bhagat’s style that doesn’t let you put the book down until you finish it up. He writes melodramatic scenes and Bollywood brand climaxes but still strikes a chord. His characters are never Perfect. They are humane and have vices and still they are heroes in themselves.
This one is no exception. His protagonist is a mediocre man who wants to make it big. You hate him throughout the story and yet his pain hurts. And in the end you feel that he is, in chetan’s word ‘a good man’.
This story has everything- love, deceit, sacrifice, ideology, greed, politics; a heady concoction apt for a Bollywood masala flick. It is bound to happen. I just hope that they do not murder it like ‘Three Idiots’ changing the protagonist from Gopal (the mediocre) to Raghav (the perfect one).
