Book Review : Revolution 2020

Title : Revolution 2020

Author : Chetan Bhagat

ISBN : 9788129118806

Publisher :  Rupa Publications

First Published : 2011

By far one of the best known Indian authors of modern times. Chetan Bhagat appeared in the top 100 list of most influential people published by the TIME magazine not so long ago.

This is his fifth book and i have read all but one of his books.

The last book that i read of his was " Two States story of my marriage" which for me was one of his best and the story that i thought was well written . I became a fan of his after reading that book due to its originality  and expected his new book to be along similar lines , breezy, entertaining and society driven. Did this book live up to that expectation , read on.

Book Review

The book starts with the author being invited as a guest speaker at a college " Ganga Tech" in Varanasi and inadvertently the author ends up visiting the director of the college Mr Gopal Mishra, the central character at his house. 

Surprised by the youthfulness, success and the wealth amassed by the young director , the author is taken in by the conversation at the directors house and all it takes is a few glasses of malt whisky for the conversation to flow in. 

The conversation flows towards the author describing the "Ganga Aarti" in varanasi as really special while Gopal freezes when he hears that name " Aarti"  .

Most of us readers who might have seen many Bollywood, Kollywood, Tollywood or numerous wood's would have got the hint of what is to come.

We are definitely not let down by the author.

The conversation & the whisky starts to flow when all of a sudden Gopal having had too much of the drink falls to the floor nearly unconscious . The drama begins to unfold as the author has a flight to catch next morning but he is a catch 22 situation on what he has to do given Gopal's situation.

Commonsense takes the better of the situation . We find ourselves in the hospital in the next scene when the author overcome by instinct to know the more beings to listen to the story of Gopal.

From here on Gopal becomes the narrator .

The story line is very simple , Two close friends Gopal & Raghav are brought to life from their very young age by a young girl called Aarti .

The story starts when these three are in their fifth standard and the pace begins when Gopal steals a piece of chocolate cake from Aarti's lunch box .

As a young student Aarti makes a fuss of it & Gopal is caught . Days and years go by , as most of us know oppostie forces attract , Gopal is attracted to Aarti but Aarti feels for him more as a friend than anything else.

Gopal desperately wants to get Aarti but Aarti tries to keep him at bay. Meanwhile, Raghav makes his career by clearing IIT JEE and securing a place in IIT BHU while Gopal miserably fails and is forced to make a second attempt due to his ill father forcing him to make him proud by retaking the exam and securing a place.

Gopal leaves to Kota in Rajasthan for a year of IIT JEE preparation penance while Aarti & Raghav become close enough to cause Gopal concern.

As predicted Aarti falls for Raghav , soon news reaches Gopal who is devastated & fails to clear the IIT JEE exam.

News that his son has failed , takes Gopal's father's life & leaves Gopal an orphan. In the meanwhile Raghav who although got admission into IIT does not feel highly of engineering . He wants to change the society , so he starts to venture into engineering , first as a intern at " Dainik" news paper.

As in indian movies, the scene changes, enter MLA Ram Shukla who sorts out Gopal's land issue and also funds building a new engineering college " Ganga Tech".

Raghav in the mean time is shown as a revolutionist and writes a report on the MLA about his scam , this forces to MLA to take action and is forced out of his intern job. Meanwhile Gopal works hard and takes his college to new heights .

Raghav goes alone to start his own news paper "Revolution 2020". 

Raghav gets busier with his new job as editor of his own news paper and a rift between him & Aarti is inevitable . This is seen as an opportunity for Gopal who becomes closer to her using various methods & ensures that Aarti is on the verge of dumping Raghav.

Meanwhile Raghav writes another article with hard facts and evidence about the MLA who this time gets arrested . An arrest of Indian MLA means that he enjoys five star hospitality is vividly shown in couple of chapters.

Gopal gets his taste of victory as Aarti wants to marry him however his conscious hurts him so he creates a scene on his birthday by having call girls in his home when Aarti is due to visit him and wish him birthday .

This creates chaos and ensure's Aarti leaves him for good & marries Raghav . In the mean time the MLA post vacated by Ram Shukla is being finalized and Aarti's father whose family connections are deeply routed to the party is being shortlisted.

Finally Aarti gets married to Raghav, who as a son in law of Aarti's dad contest's the election as MLA .

Story ends there and returns back to hospital where by now Gopal

On his way to airport , author call's up Gopal and says " You are a nice man" & the book comes to a close.

Am not sure how you felt about the story , my view is that the story does not manage to connect to the title . Whether the author deliberately let it stay away given that he ends the story at a time when Raghav is contesting the elections and the readers are left to make up their own conclusion that he will bring about revolution in 2020 doesn't seem too logical tom me but looks like the most possible thought from the author.

The book captivates the audience and as in his previous books, author has managed to keep the pace . The book is written on a typical movie style with its pace , drama and surrealism. 

Author could have elongated the book a little further to conclude the book as to what it says on the cover but that is just my opinion.

All in all, the book is readable but it doesn't live up to the author's reputation and to the hype that the book created.

In my view an average book to read at bed time or to pass time when you have nothing else important to do. There is nothing new or refreshing , number of movies have been made along similar lines.

Disappointing to average is my verdict on the book. Don't get me wrong here , my expectations from the author having read his previous books were high , hence this score.

Hope you enjoyed this. Until next time , take care.