In 2004, Chetan Bhagat published his first novel that would go on to change the face of the Indian publishing industry. Much has been said about it and the author’s style. But a book is a book and one has to read to decide it for themselves.
The book deals with the lives of the three friends, whose elation on making it to IIT, one of the best engineering colleges in India, is quickly deflated by the rigour and monotony of the academic work. It starts with a rather dramatic scene in an ambulance and then quickly goes to another dramatic time in the past when the three friends saw each other for the first time as they stood naked in the college hostel, ready to be harrassed by their seniors.
What is it that Chetan Bhagat does that so many of his readers find so intriguing? We will explore that.
Bhagat engages you in the story right from the very first page. There is always drama. And enough tension. But the most important part is, his narration is brutally honest. He never comes across as a pretentious narrator and the reader easily believes him. The simple vocabulary and highly relatable events strike a perfect chord. Take a look at the first paragraph of Chapter One.
Before I really begin this book, let me first tell you what this book is not. It is not a guide on how to love through college. On the contrary, it is probably an example of how screwed up your college years can get if you don’t think straight.
Bhagat is funny. In Five Point Someone, you would barely go through a page without having a chuckle or two. His humour is usually cooked keeping in mind how the Indian palate works. And there is always some sex to go with the humour. For instance…
My hand slid under her T-shirt and then clumsily under The Bra. Life would be so much better without hooks.
As the book progresses, the narration does not lose its pace. In fact, it gets more interesting. There are two things the author does that make the experience more fulfilling. One, he keeps creating familiar, yet new, scenarios page after page which amuse the reader to a great extent. Two, he does throw in some casual commentary every now and then, which seems some kind of common sense wisdom but has a pretty good timing.
There are times in life you wish dinosaurs weren’t extinct and could be whistled to come and gulp you down.
One of the things one must understand about Chetan Bhagat is that he knows his audience well. He knows perfectly well what language they communicate in (which is usually Hinglish i.e., Hindi + English), what expressions they use, what their dreams and aspirations are, what they want to learn, where they want to laugh, where they want to get serious. This reflects not only in his writing but also how he packages and sells them. Success, in his case like most others, is not a coincidence.
If Five Point Someone were a child, it would have turned 16 by now, preparing for its IIT entrance exam. Thank god, it’s a book as it should have been.
Kalampedia 