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Knotty affair: Bridging the North-South divide

By Shobha Sengupta

Chetan Bhagat, IITian and IIM alumnus, has come up with yet another blockbuster in his 2 States: The Story of My Marriage. His two in-between books after the 2004 debut novel Five-Point Someone may have been unreadable, but this is his "comeback". Like all his titles, this too has a number in it. Maybe he’s been told that numbers are the key to his success.

2 States is inspired by Bhagat’s own life. The book is about a couple, both IIM-A graduates, and their struggle to marry. Krish is a Punjabi boy in love with a Tamilian Brahmin girl Ananya (as with the author and his wife). Both Ananya and Krish take turns to win over each other’s families and then try to make both the families like each other. In fact, Krish proposes to the girl’s entire family with four gold rings. However, Ananya is unlike other Tamil girls: she is not as dark as many southern girls and, unlike most Tam-Brahms, she both drinks and eats meat. Yet the cultural differences come to the fore, and their love is at the mercy of societal and familial norms. The man finds himself torn between his girlfriend/wife and mother. It is all hilarious. There is no pulling at heartstrings, and no surprises are sprung.

The book is sweet and funny. The South India-meets-North India fiascos are hilarious, and written with warmth and insight, though the book has a typical Mills and Boon ending. This book may even advance an understanding between the two regions, and bring to many North Indian readers a stronger consciousness that the South is indeed an integral part of the country. Readers who do not harbour disdain for a Chetan Bhagat book (believe me, there are so many who will not be seen dead near a copy of his book that I’m left wondering how I have sold a hundred-odd copies in just a few days in my store), probably do club all South Indians as being "Madrasis" as do some of the North Indians featured in the book. It is this readership that the book aims at.

"We expect to sell 10 lakh copies in 10 weeks," says Bhagat, not unreasonably, considering the book is now cutting across sections of readership, and has appealed to the young at heart. There are several reasons for Bhagat’s success. One, the price of his books is ridiculously low at Rs 95. No one minds adding it to his list of books. Students and first-time executives, for whom the book is mainly written, find it easy on their pockets. Two, it is written simply but well.

Simplicity is Bhagat’s USP. There are no literary flourishes, and no complex craft is employed. The sole intention is to tell a story and, in the process, entertain. Honest and truthful to his purpose, there is a flow that could very well be enviable for an established author. And we do want to know how the lovers resolve the differences between their two very different families. Plus, we Indians like a little social message thrown in for righteous effect. Ergo, there is an anti-dowry incident, replete with a lecture by the female protagonist. Would Bhagat’s young readers pay heed and put their foot down against this social menace in their lives, please? Today’s youth is outwardly mobile, and turning global, but internally very traditional.

In Bhagat’s book, the protagonists manage to bring parents to their way of thinking, but what of those young couples who are not as resourceful or as successful? Bhagat is preachy. He says he doesn’t take his "youth icon" tag seriously. "Yet, I have to accept that this generation is listening to me. So what will I do with it? The next challenge is to try and change mindsets," he proclaims in an interview. Tribal kids, we are told, are reading Chetan Bhagat in Bastar. (Perhaps Bhagat is the antidote to the lure of Naxalism).

So what do you do when you’re the biggest selling Indian writer in English? Repeat the plot? Or widen your narrative canvas? Chetan Bhagat is doing all that and more. His books are being turned into films. Hello was based on One Night@Call Centre. 3 Idiots is based on Five Point Someone, and Farhan Akhtar is producing a film on 3 Mistakes. And offers for the filming rights to 2 States are pouring in. Bhagat is also scripting a new role for himself. He has just quit his investment banking job to become a full-time writer and film scriptwriter and to be a stay-at-home dad to his five-year-old twins.

His publishers believe that Bhagat’s advent is one of the watershed moments in Indian publishing because besides raising the bar for a book to be considered a bestseller, he has opened up a different market segment altogether. The success of Five Point Someone — and the fact that such novels are easily written — triggered off a huge spate of campus novels. Some of these were truly funny like Keep off the Grass by Karan Bajaj which is about how an ABCD investment banker comes to IIM Bangalore, where everyone is dying to "be" an investment banker. In Sumthing of a Mocktale by Soma Das, the author captures the JNU world entertainingly. Bestseller Mediocre but Arrogant by Abhijit Bhaduri is a campus tale set in XLRI, Jamshedpur (called MIJ in the book). No Onions Nor Garlic by Srividya Natarajan is set in Chennai University, and so on. However, Bhagat outsells all of these by a long shot.

Shobha Sengupta is a freelance writer and the owner of Quill And Canvas, a bookstore and art gallery in Gurgaon