I suppose the primary challenge of picking up a Chetan Bhagat book to review is the process of ignoring that section of your mind that screams "This isn't LITERATURE" and persuading it to believe that literature isn't what you came here looking for in the first place. Admittedly, it would be quite foolish to work your way through such a book, looking for examples of clever wordplay and witty dialogue between its characters. Revolution 2020 has no brilliant language in it. But then again, it never pretends to be anything more than itself. And that works in its favour.
Revolution 2020 is the story of Gopal, a Varanasi local, and his constantly mutating relationships with his old best friend, Raghav, and the girl of his dreams, Aarti, as he works hard to scrape by life somehow, eventually giving in to the temptations that a corruption laden lifestyle has to offer. Within the first few chapters, what quickly became clear to me was that Bhagat had decided to try and replace the whole process of character development in the case of the protagonist, by constantly bombarding with all sorts of problems and miseries. At half-way through the book, you can't help but feel for Gopal, and even nod understandingly at his usually questionable actions throughout the book.
Raghav's character is supposed to be one that has a sense of social responsibility. While we are never given a direct look into his thoughts, we do get a lot of indirect looks, such as when he shows up on a television channel and gives us a taste of his idealistic views. I was disappointed by those pieces though. I understand Chetan Bhagat to be a rather impressive public speaker, especially when it comes to topics such as youth empowerment and similar. If that's true, this was a let-down. None of Raghav's speeches inspired me in the least. Too fake.
All in all, I found Revolution 2020 a thoroughly readable book, one you can get through quickly and without much brain damage. And that means a lot coming from someone who hated One Night @ A Call Centre as much as I did, title et al. I say you give it a read, simply because everyone you know will. It's light, and even good if you liked any of his previous works.
I feel I should mention though, the ending was rather rushed. Somehow I've always found endings like that rather annoying. It's like eating dessert that leaves a bad taste in your mouth afterwards. If you can, finish it at night. That way you don't have to carry the taste around all day.
Revolution 2020 is the story of Gopal, a Varanasi local, and his constantly mutating relationships with his old best friend, Raghav, and the girl of his dreams, Aarti, as he works hard to scrape by life somehow, eventually giving in to the temptations that a corruption laden lifestyle has to offer. Within the first few chapters, what quickly became clear to me was that Bhagat had decided to try and replace the whole process of character development in the case of the protagonist, by constantly bombarding with all sorts of problems and miseries. At half-way through the book, you can't help but feel for Gopal, and even nod understandingly at his usually questionable actions throughout the book.
Raghav's character is supposed to be one that has a sense of social responsibility. While we are never given a direct look into his thoughts, we do get a lot of indirect looks, such as when he shows up on a television channel and gives us a taste of his idealistic views. I was disappointed by those pieces though. I understand Chetan Bhagat to be a rather impressive public speaker, especially when it comes to topics such as youth empowerment and similar. If that's true, this was a let-down. None of Raghav's speeches inspired me in the least. Too fake.
All in all, I found Revolution 2020 a thoroughly readable book, one you can get through quickly and without much brain damage. And that means a lot coming from someone who hated One Night @ A Call Centre as much as I did, title et al. I say you give it a read, simply because everyone you know will. It's light, and even good if you liked any of his previous works.
I feel I should mention though, the ending was rather rushed. Somehow I've always found endings like that rather annoying. It's like eating dessert that leaves a bad taste in your mouth afterwards. If you can, finish it at night. That way you don't have to carry the taste around all day.
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