Chetan Bhagat

Chetan Bhagat is an Indio-Anglican author who has written books like Five Point Someone and ...

Chetan Bhagat is an Indio-Anglican author who has written books like Five Point Someone and One Night@ Call Centre. He is the biggest-selling English-language novelist in India's history.

Born and brought up in a Punjabi family in Delhi, Chetan completed his schooling from Army Public School, Dhaula Kuan, New-Delhi. He went on to study Mechanical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, and MBA from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad (1995–1997). After an illustrious academic career, Chetan opted for a lucrative profession in banking. An inclination towards the fictional world led to Five Point Someone, a novel based on his own experiences at IIT, and the rest is a stuff of legends.

Chetan’s body of work is dramatic humour, based largely on real life situations and events. Be it Five Point Someone (set in IIT Delhi), One Night @ Call Centre(set on a call centre in Gurgaon) or 2 States(set around IIM Ahmedabad), the settings and theme are realistic and easy to  be associated with. He uses these devices to strike the right cord with his target audience, which in this case is the youth of the country. He is an author who perfectly understands his limitations when it comes to technical aspects of fiction (leaving it to the likes of Vikram Seth and Arundhati Roy), but nevertheless manages to convey the dictats of life in an intriguing and subtle manner.

There are but a few authors who encourage a wide gulf between readers and critics: Chetan bears the dubious distinction of being one of them. On one hand, all his novels have received an overwhelming response from the masses, enjoying the status of national bestsellers. Infact, two of his novels have been adapted into movies (Five Point Someone and One Night @ Call Centre). On the other, the critics have mostly been harsh on his novels, terming them ‘masala’ and devoid of literary satisfaction. However, there are others who’ve appreciated the writing style, expressiveness and impact of his novels.

Chetan has truly been a trend setter, serving as inspiration for the aspiring young writers, as well as setting a culture of campus novels in India. What sets a Chetan Bhagat novel apart from the contemporaries are the punches, witty liners, comparisons and ability to relate to readers. Moreover, he specializes in creating a setting very familiar to the reader and incorporating that personal touch (you feel as if someone is narrating the story to you at first hand).  He makes his writings easy to understand and very expressive! However, certainly there are certain glaring demerits in his works. The author seemingly goes overboard in his tryst with Bollywood and Melodrama, at times coming up with impossible situations. Moreover, the elements of honesty and ingenuity seem to be missing at places. The author’s love of philosophy takes over at certain instances, and the main topic takes a backseat.

All said and done, one thing which cannot be denied is that his novels are fun-filled, and certainly best buddies on a journey.
 

Submitted by: Apal Kumar