Muses of Murari

Chetan Bhagat is now becoming more popular among young masses in India, with two of his books are being made into major bollywood movies. I read his first book “Five point someone” with much reluctance and only after hearing good reviews. When I read it, it was charm. I instantly loved it like thousands of others who read it. When his second book – “One night @ call center” – released, no second thought was given in buying the book. The reading was pleasure, but it had some missing component in it. Now, his latest novel, his third creation – “The three mistakes of my life” is released. I like to share my views (and not a review) on the book.

I took this book from the shelves of Landmark, with much expectation because due to its teasing blurb which had some of the areas of my interests – cricket and business. The story started with now authentic Bhagat style, with three friends, striking the chords of young readers of India. This is the first strike of the book . The entire story is setup in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. The three friends start a cricket business, and the story goes onto describing how their lives revolved around cricket, math tuition, local politics & romance.

Chetan told that his first novel was based on his real life experiences. May be due to repeat this success mantra he wants to continue in his other novels also. So he came up with a story like young girl explaining her story in a train in his second novel, now here, young Gujarati writing a suicide note to the author and later describing his experiences. I don’t know how long it will work? But as of now it is fine.

Chetan has got good knack of mixing humor with his dialogues and describing things. This I noticed in all his novels. Particularly, about how the girls think, behave, express and how poor men souls get perplexed about them! Again he strikes the right pulses of younger generation. This is the second strike of the book .

He chose the time line of the story properly and integrated the real life incidents with the story very well. The incidents like Bhuj, Gujarat earthquake, the historic India vs Australia second test match in which India won after being asked to follow on, 9/11 incident and the Gujarat carnage. But taking the story to Australia episode was bad. Really it sucked. Except to the bikini babes in an Australian beach kindling the romances of one of the three guys, it never proved any point. It just increased the number of pages.

I was bit disappointed with the novel. It had all the ingredients of a Bollywood movie. It had romance, sentiment, masala and fight sequences at the end. Chetan, we know your novels are being made into Bollywood movies, but you don’t need it to influence your story telling.

What I liked apart from the story, is the pricing of the book. Its cost just Rs.95 Anyone can throw away that money. To tell you why the price matters, let me give you an example. I was long waiting to read the book “Investing the happionaire way”, after reading its good reviews. I saw the book in Landmark when I was picking “The three mistakes…” I was shocked to see the price. It costs Rs.499. I saw the number of pages to be in double digits so I decided to read the book then and there. Yep, I spent two hours in Landmark and read the book for free! The book was good but the pricing was bad. It talks how common people can invest in stock markets and clearing many common misconceptions. Good topic to cover many young readers like me.

Chetan got the right grey cells. He sold the books for double digit prices, so that many people will buy and read his books. This will ensure less pirating, the price actually drives people to shell their monies and buy, instead of borrowing from friends or libraries. Good strategy. This is the third strike of the book . I wish many publishers follow the suit. Overall, your leisure Saturday can be invested on this book.

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