Format: Paperback
Language: English
ISBN: 9788129118806
Pages: 296
Price: 140.00
Chetan Bhagat, the writer and Chetan Bhagat, the IIM-A passout investment banker – both can’t be the same person. ‘Revolution 2020’ proves that yet again. If you want to learn how one should market even a simple product, Chetan Bhagat is THE go-to man.
Alike (note, not unlike) the rest of his novels, ‘Revolution 2020’ by Chetan Bhagat has not managed to awake the dormant likeliness that an impressed reader feels for a book. This story of Gopal, Raghav and Aarti never felt like the wonderness of ‘Five Point Someone’. At the same time the reviewer admits that, this book also has not let down the reader like a ‘One Night @ the Call Center’. So, hanging in the middle, with performance one notch up than ‘The 3 Mistakes of my life’ and one notch down than ‘2 States’, ‘Revolution 2020’ is like the revolution we are never going to face in near future.
The story has all the elements that normally comprises of a typical Chetan Bhagat novel –
1. Drama,
2. Complex twists in love (with a tinge of physical intimacy to pull in the concentration of the yuppies),
3. Political extravaganza, and
4. Social message (encrypted in such a way that the reader feels like hiring a professional Cryptographer to decrypt it).
After the melodrama of ‘3 Idiots’ over the copyright issue, seems like the latter books of the author are more inclined to be almost-going-to-be-scripted-to-a-masala-Bollywood-flick types. Personal opinion.
Our generation has a thing about Chetan Bhagat. And it has been proved time and again that the thing is the brainchild of the brilliant marketing personality in Mr. Bhagat. It’s the hype that he manages to create before the launch of his yet another non-descript book, this time in the form of ‘Revolution 2020’.
But, talk about entertainment, Mr. Bhagat is to the Indian English literary world what a Rajnikant is to South Indian movies and a SRK is to Bollywood. You can hate them, but ignore? Never. The vendor selling photocopies of all the novels of Mr. Bhagat at the traffic signals won’t let you do so, that’s for sure.
There is nothing much to write about the storyline of ‘Revolution 2020’ here, because I can bet, everyone who is currently reading this review is doing so just to take a peek into what we have to say about the book and how similar/different that is from their personal view. So, this post can be described as more of a general discussion of the book, rather than a detailed review of the same. The rating below is strictly on the basis of the entertainment the book provided me. If you were there, you would have prolly noticed a cheese popcorn in my hand all the time.
About the Author: Chetan Bhagat is the author of five blockbuster novels – Five Point Someone (2004), One Night @ the Call Center (2005), The 3 Mistakes of my life (2008), 2 States (2009) and Revolution 2020 (2011).
Chetan’s books have remained bestsellers since their release, and have been adapted into major Bollywood films. The New York Times called him the ‘the biggest selling English language novelist in India’s history’. Time magazine named him in the “100 Most Influential People in the world” and Fast Company, USA listed him as one of the world’s “100 most creative people in business”.
Chetan writes columns for leading English and Hindi newspapers, focusing on youth and national development issues.
[Courtesy: http://www.chetanbhagat.com/about/]
Overall Rating: 7.5/10
More Details:
The author on Facebook: Chetan Bhagat
The author’s website: http://www.chetanbhagat.com/
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6 comments
Sidharth Ganesh says:
Dec 21, 2011
I see. But I think it’s the simple language and his way of expression that keeps readers going. The fact about the hype he creates is totally true.
Nishant 'Nish' Vora says:
Dec 21, 2011
Thanks.. I’m one of the few who haven’t read it yet, and after reading your review, I suppose I don’t need to prioritize it for now, lol.
sarvesh says:
Dec 21, 2011
You let him off the hook fairly cheap, I have read him being dissected into pieces on some other bloggers’ sites. Hate him, love him, or leave him alone! Whatever.
preeti says:
Dec 24, 2011
hey i just read the book yesterday….i wouldn’t say it was a total waste of time reading it….one could visualize current indian situation both in politics nd the outside world….u can read it once….i would rate it 8/10…
Mr. Brown says:
Jan 1, 2012
I agree with this blog post. CB is a brand and he is doling out an average product each time but manages to market it very well. I havent read 2020 but all I can say is that since the entertainment factor & competitive price (and movie script like story) is present, people don’t hold grudges for long against such novels. I have seen rising criticism and dissatisfaction for such kind of books amongst existing readers but the sales figures of this novel remain high due to clever all-round marketing & influx of new readers. I can write an essay now but I end here. Looking at the huge choice available on Indian fiction book shelves, it boils down to one point, invest wisely.
Neha S says:
Oct 18, 2014
Chetan Bhagats research and writing seems to be spot on. was very easy to visualize exactly what he was talking about, even though I’ve never been to Kota or Varanasi.
The character if Gopal was the highlight of it all. A villainous hero?