Chetan is by far the biggest selling Indian author. His stories have always struck a chord with the young crowd and have made him a household name amidst young students and professionals. His latest book, “Revolution 2020” is akin to his previous works.
The novel is pretty much similar to his previous works because of the simple vocabulary and the simple characters in the novel. He has tried to send out a social message through his new book which is a very good sign.
The story is set in Varanasi and revolves around 3 childhood friends. The story is woven around the poor Gopal Mishra and his childhood friends, the rich girl Aarthi and an Engineer’s son Raghav and their dreams. It talks about IIT –JEE, AIEEE and the preparation institutes in Kota in detail. It also talks about bringing out a change in the society. There is a very practical love story amidst all the commotion. The strongest point in the story is that you can identify yourself with the characters, be it the grey character or the straight forward one. Nobody is born evil; it is only the society which turns the good ones into evil. Similarly, all you need to get back to your good old ways is a small spark which reminds you of the past. It also advocates you to follow your passion.
Every character in the novel come with their own philosophies and still you could relate to them. All of them are right in their own rights. There will be one Prateek in every class and the MLA Shukla’s is probably Chetan’s way of reiterating his “Mera Neta Chor jai” movement. Though, it has come to an end, the characterization of Shukla has certainly evolved from the campaign.
Chetan takes a dig at the municipal authorities, the education department, HODs, the AICTE and a bunch of other people who are part of the corrupt society. He has taken the private engineering colleges as the base and explored all the possible avenues. It extends up to the shady underground business of the goons and the ugly land-grabbing cases as well.
The story starts with a simple wit in the 5th standard classroom and ends with a lot of hope. The 15 years travel between the beginning and the end of the story moves like a lazy breeze across your face. There are some major twists on the way but mostly it is a seamless masala story, the one that we expect from Chetan Bhagat.
The slight humor which is a usually trait in CB’s novel is slightly missing here. This story has more sexual content compared to his previous novels which would make the younger audience feel slightly uncomfortable. The story reads like a screenplay which is already written with a movie in mind. The contents towards the end are too filmy. Though the filmy contents are needed to provide hope to the audience, it doesn’t fit well in a story which was pretty much practical till then.
Bottom line: Revolution 2020 certainly doesn’t surpass CB’s best work (Five Point someone) but can certainly be read once to get the CB social consciousness feeling.
