Friday, October 9, 2020

"One Arranged Murder" by Chetan Bhagat - Not a Book Review



 In life, one of the most challenging tasks is judging something without being judgemental about it. Let me elucidate.  While Judging something, you have to be neutral in every aspect. You have to keep aside all your past experiences, earlier records, and people’s opinions regarding that particular thing. On the other hand,  when you are judgemental about something, you bring the past performances and other people’s view into the equation. Don’t worry, this theory is created by me. It helps me to bifurcate between judging something or being judgemental about something. I hope that will help you too, as you read this article further.

Chetan Bhagat, who started his career with the books like One night @ the call center, Five point someone, and Three mistakes of my life, was a trendsetter and converted many non-readers into readers. He brought a different revolution in the field of literature. He became the apple of the eye of millions of readers, specifically in India. But with time, and after lots of success, Bhagat started losing his charm when we talk about his books. Most of his books began adapting to Hindi movies. So, I personally felt like he started writing more for the movies’ scripts than readers. His Books like Half-Girlfriend and One Indian girl was somewhat looked like more of a Bollywood script than a book.

And then, his views upon feminism and gender equality were widely criticised across the nation. However, his books were a huge success and always remain at the top of the charts.

I read his recent book – One Arranged Murder.

If we talk about its story, Two friends, Saurabh and Keshav, are not much in talking terms after an episode of misunderstanding.  Saurabh, who is about to get married in a couple of months, is going to her fiancé, Prerna, at his home as she fasted for him on the occasion of Karva Chauth.  He was climbing the stairs to meet her at the terrace but was welcomed with something alarming. He saw a people gathering around a dead body on the ground. Was that an accident or a murder? The story revolves around that. Sourabh and Keshav, apart from working in a corporate, also run a detective agency called Z Detectives. So no points for guessing; they help the police to solve the case.

Honestly speaking, without flaunting my intellect, I could guess the criminal on the 80th page of this book, which has about three hundred-odd pages. That was more of a work of my emotional instinct than my critical analysis. But with each page proceeding, I started doubting myself, and that’s what I consider the success of this book. New theories came in eventually, and that’s the essence of the book.

It has that Chetan Bhagat factor as it mixes up all the variants like his earlier books. It has that tragedy, that romance, and that masala, his x-factor in the books like two states and three mistakes of my life.

On the other hand, I found some parts of the book quite impractical and hard to believe. The characters were behaving quite differently and beyond the boundaries of their portrayal. At some point, I also felt that this book is also written for a movie or a web-series. But that’s again one’s personal opinion, not a fact.

Do I like the book? Oh yes. It’s undoubtedly a page-turner, and I believe that its entertainment quotient is relatively high.

Will you like the book? That will depend on what you are looking for in the book.

Here’s the link to the book, in case you are looking forward to reading it.

I’ll see you soon.

Love, Laughter, and Peace

Himanshu R Nagpal

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