A story of two boys and a girl from Varanasi, caught in the
wave of a changing India, each bound by their circumstances and each taking a
different road to success- that is the gist of Chetan Bhagat’s latest literary
offering.
All in all “Revolution” is a classic Bhagat. It has all of
his trademarks- simple style of writing, youth, their struggles and choices at
the centre of the plot, boy-girl love, even “flashback” like there was in “The
three mistakes….” . All of which make it a fun read, but at the same time make
it just another book. After nearly half a dozen books, the reader cannot be
blamed for expecting something fresh from the author. So much has been said by
him about similar subjects that now it is almost beginning to sound like a
formula- take a small town, put in a couple of struggling boys and girls, let
them make a few wrong and right choices and tie it all up at the end. Where is
the diversity that will keep his faithful readers coming back for more?
As for the characters, it is not so much that they sound
repetitive or are not well drawn- Ragahv, Aarti and Gopal are three distinct
personalities and Chetan manages to bring that out. However the side of them
that really matters to the plot is not sufficiently covered. Gopal’s character
is supposed to be the guy obsessed with money- but all we see in the book is
his obsession with Aarti. Raghav is supposed to be this big revolutionary. That
side of him is thrust upon us suddenly about half way through the novel. Nowhere
do we hear of his ambitions as a
teenager or even when he prepares for the IIT exams. Arti is the quintessential
new small town Indian girl, yearning to spread her wings and build a career in
aviation, but because the plot demands that she stay in Varanasi and continue
to be in the lives of the male protagonists, she mysteriously compromises to a
guest relations job at a local hotel.
On the other hand, the author has done a terrific job of
revealing the dirty underbelly of private education in India- the
babu-neta-businessman nexus is sketched beautifully. Along with Gopal, we wince
and learn how the system works and for those of us who are products of the
private education system, it does make us wonder if we also fell victims to the
same charade.
Most of the book, though not a great thought provoking work,
manages to cruise along fairly well keeping you entertained with the rapid rise
of Gopal from an orphaned engineering failure to becoming the Director of a
multi-crore teaching outfit. The Gopal, Ragahv and Arti love story also manages
to provoke a few smiles. And all would be well if Chetan Bhagat had not decided
to do a “Sangam” (refer to Raj Kapoor’s
bollywood classic) at the end.
What is the significance of sacrificing the sweetheart to the
“better” man? Are we still in an age
where a woman is the symbolic reward for good behaviour? Why is the female
protagonist reduced to being nothing more than a prize to be won for being
morally upright? And if one man ditches her, does a woman have no choice but to
run and marry the only other man in her life who she has admitted she no longer
loves? Has she no mind of her own? Frankly I had expected better from a
progressive writer like Chetan Bhagat. If on the one hand he questions and
ridicules the stereotypes of success as defined in our society, why does he
hesitate to do the same for gender issues? Maybe in the next book we will
finally see the rise of a strong female protagonist created by him, and a story
that moves out of colleges and youthful banter to a tale about more significant
issues.
