India's most loved writer , Chetan Bhagat released his fourth offering 2 States , the story of my Marriage last month. Although I was terribly disappointed by his previous book - 3 mistakes, I am still a fan of his work. His new book as he claims is a fictionalized version of his own struggle to get married to the girl of his choice.
Krish and Ananya are 2 classmates in love at IIM-A but Krish is Punjabi and Ananya is a Tamilian. So obviously there is opposition to their marriage. But instead of taking the easy route of eloping, they decide to play turns in convincing each other's family and that's what the entire book is about.
The parameters for the north vs south clash are set up very early in the book and right at the beginning it moves with breakneck pace. But it settles down into a sweet although predictable family comedy with cultural differences emerging at the top of the jest pile.
About Chetan's characters, they seem to have grown mature. It is the first time since Five point Someone, you feel that you know something more about the narrator rather than half-baked characterizations in his previous two works. There are a lot of nostalgic well placed references to FPS as well. Minor characters too get good scope to display their displeasure at the proceedings. On the other hand though, some of his story lines do seem just mere extensions of his previous characters. Bad boss, newspaper savvy characters, south indian tendency to be bookworms etc. to name a few. Also the message he wants to get through about moving over our cultural differences and embracing people from all over India has been passed on a million times before without much progress. (Although that isn't Chetan's fault, firstly the north-south dilemma has been done to death. An east west , a Gujju-Bengali angle could have been an interesting premise). It begs the reason as to why to look for partners from a different clan when you know there is going to be confrontation.
All said and done, CB does a better job this time. The subtle observations and the clever one-liners are all there in this book, and slightly more depth in his writing makes it an enjoyable read. Ofcourse it is very bollywoodish in nature, and can be finished in one sitting as is the case with all his books. His critics will remain but one should review his book more from a humorist point of view rather than a literary one.
Rating : 3/5
Krish and Ananya are 2 classmates in love at IIM-A but Krish is Punjabi and Ananya is a Tamilian. So obviously there is opposition to their marriage. But instead of taking the easy route of eloping, they decide to play turns in convincing each other's family and that's what the entire book is about.
The parameters for the north vs south clash are set up very early in the book and right at the beginning it moves with breakneck pace. But it settles down into a sweet although predictable family comedy with cultural differences emerging at the top of the jest pile.
About Chetan's characters, they seem to have grown mature. It is the first time since Five point Someone, you feel that you know something more about the narrator rather than half-baked characterizations in his previous two works. There are a lot of nostalgic well placed references to FPS as well. Minor characters too get good scope to display their displeasure at the proceedings. On the other hand though, some of his story lines do seem just mere extensions of his previous characters. Bad boss, newspaper savvy characters, south indian tendency to be bookworms etc. to name a few. Also the message he wants to get through about moving over our cultural differences and embracing people from all over India has been passed on a million times before without much progress. (Although that isn't Chetan's fault, firstly the north-south dilemma has been done to death. An east west , a Gujju-Bengali angle could have been an interesting premise). It begs the reason as to why to look for partners from a different clan when you know there is going to be confrontation.
All said and done, CB does a better job this time. The subtle observations and the clever one-liners are all there in this book, and slightly more depth in his writing makes it an enjoyable read. Ofcourse it is very bollywoodish in nature, and can be finished in one sitting as is the case with all his books. His critics will remain but one should review his book more from a humorist point of view rather than a literary one.
Rating : 3/5
