Revolution 2020 is a story cum love triangle of three friends: Gopal,Aarti and Rahgav.
It has been written in the backdrop of holy city Varanasi.
Gopal is the narrator of the story
The story starts when all 3 are in class V of Sunbeam school. Gopal loves Aarti since school days. Gopal is from poor background whose father is gravely ill, Raghav is from upper middle class family whereas Aarti is daughter of rich IAS officer having good political history.
All three are ambitious, though in different ways. Gopal wants to be rich, Aarti wants to be air hostess whereas Raghav wants to bring a change in system(society).
Raghav is excellent in studies whereas Gopal is mediocre and Aarti has different plans altogether.
Sea change comes in their lives when Raghav cracks JEE and AIEEE whereas Gopal fails twice. Aarti who was sweetheart of Gopal starts drifting away from Gopal towards Raghav and then starts a strange game of jealousy, pain, success and failure.
Gopal takes wrong path to start an engineering college and amasses wealth under the guidance of local MLA who is now father figure to Gopal in all his bad deeds, whereas Raghav dumps a lucrative career of a software engineer in Infosys to become a reporter in order to revolutionize society.
The story revolves around these three characters all the time , which has all shades of love,sex,betraal,success,defeat,struggle etc.
The end is quite unpredictable for anyone. Writer does not try to justify who is right or wrong, rather leaves this to readers’ discretion.
USP of the novel:
The story tells about typical struggle of any engineering aspirant, love pangs of any teenager for his childhood crush and actual state of affairs of political system and corruption which has deeply seeped into our system.
Any person who has undergone failure in his first attempt of cracking JEE or other entrance exam and consequences arriving out of the treatment of friends, relatives and society can very well touch chord with the story.
Aany person who has fell in love with someone during his preparation years can very well relate to the setup and this story also conveys what not to when you are in love and at the same time career is at stake.
Chetan has tried to portray typical nature of girls in his own style.
Simple language of the novel will keep you engaged (but not hooked)
Quotations worth mentioning:
“Regret- This feeling has to be one of the biggest manufacturing defects in humans. We keep regretting even though there is no point to it.”
“GEMS-Group of Extra Meritorious Students. Gems comprised of ultra geeks who would prefer solving physics problems to having sex and for whom fun means memorising the periodic table.”
“ A girl’s “I’m Fine” especially with capital “F” is like an “iceberg ahead” sign for a ship.”
“Girls always leave subtle phrases as qualifiers, so you can’t put them in a spot later.”
“ Losers, even if they don’t have a brain, have a heart.”
“ It is amazing how the brain will connect one thought to another until it gets where it wants to be.”
“ That’s what human relationships are about-selective sharing and hiding information to the point of crazy confusion.”
“Girls can come up with the simplest of messages that leave the most complex meanings.”
“Maybe that innocent, good part of us never dies- we just trample upon it for a while.”
“Life may not offer you the same chance twice.”
What I didn’t like in this novel:
This is 5th book of Chetan Bhagat. He has tried his level best to live up to the expectations set up by Five Point someone , his first book,which I think is his best book so far.
But Revolution2020 fails to entertain. Even the wits and humour for which CB is known is missing in this book.
The story is somewhat filmy and seems to be having shades of the movie Rajneeti or any other love triangle.The title of the novel does justify the theme .
About the author:
Chetan Bhagat is the author of four bestselling novels –Five point someone,One Night@callcentre,The 3 mistakes of my life and 2 States: Story of my life.
Chetan quit his international investment banking career in 2009 and has been full time writer. He was pass out of IIT-Delhi and IIM Ahemdabad. He writes guest columns in a national daily newspaper.
Rating : 3/5
Though I have been a fan of Chetan Bhagat myself but this book has failed to impress me.
Hoping his next book will not disappoint his readers. 🙂
Good review. I too read the book and it at all didnt entertain me.
Here is my review : http://www.arnabdeka.in/2011/10/revolution-2020-chetan-bhagat.html
I think the story is lil too dragged. Also there’s no justification as to why Gopal ditch himself in the end. He struggled from the beginning till the last minute to get Aarti. But no idea why he did that mistake in the end.
I liked the book, but the end part was no doubt unexpected, but confusing too. The guy chases the girl for whole time n when he gets her, he plans to make fool of her/himself. I particularly dint like because of its ending!
i don’t understand at last point why gopal leave aarti because of his love or for his friendship with khasyap .but if he leave the girl because he love her then he is a fool as the girl was happy with him and accept him as he was .
Hello guys… whats so confusing in it?? Gopal is basically a good person at heart. He had quit at the end coz he knew that he wouldn’t be genuine to cheat a genuine person. So he didnt wanted to be a person who is exposed as a bad human being by nature, where he is not. Raghav being a sincere a genuine person had won the girl and everything he has to deserve. As simple as that. Don’t take things so complicated guys…
Why the novel is named Revolution 2020??
I absoloutely agree with Jessica.
Aarti cared and loved Gopal as a freind.But,for a long time, she loved Raghav and even though their relation had its problems, she was alwys tryng to be next to him and share his problems and joys.
Gopal was a great frnd as he gradually realizes “this longing” his best frnd &love-Aarti has to be with Raghav forever.
“When you love someone truly, you will have the courage to leave her if ‘you are not the best’, that she deserves.” Raghav had stuck to his principles &faced mny difficulties to execute his childhood dream of a better society. So, Gopal must have felt that a strong willed,brave man who never compromised on his ethics- was a better man than him and Aarti, his love deserved “the best”.
Gopal is a intrinsically a good &a vry brave person. He takes bribes, lies and treads the wrong path, but ‘his heart still remains pure’ and he makes the ultimate sacrifice thus, “doing his bit for the revolution”.
Revolution 2020 is about the changes in the society that one indivual with a pen can bring. But, it is also a story of ‘3 lives’.
Revolution 2020 is about Raghav’s personal struggle of not just fighting corrupt politicians, but also fighting for the choice he made- to give up a well paid career awaiting an IIT student and taking up journalism. His parents were against it and sometimes, even Aarti misunderstood. The entire battle is ‘the Revolution’,&ultimatelty Raghav emerges victoriuos
Gopal has his own struggles,failures but ultimately,he wins the battle against the evil in him, with the good side of him &by his sacrifice, he unites Raghav and Aarti.
Without,Gopal’s bravery , Raghav’s Revolution would never be complete.
Aarti is the fine thread that ties the lives of Gopal and Raghav(like a delicate backbone),she supports Raghav in his battle and tries hard to be Gopal’s best frnd when he fails his exam or needs to shop for his travel to Kota. Her love hurts Gopal, but her frndship gives him strength mny times-like his first failure at Entrance exams or his father’s death. Even, his disappointment in love, drives him to work hard to excel in Kota
The most important thing that revolution brings is “CHANGE-A POSITIVE CHANGE” So, ultimately Revolution 2020 CHANGES Aarti, Gopal and Raghav into better, stronger people.
Great Story By Chetan Bhagat……….. Thank u very much…..
Completely agreed with Jessica and Somedatta. I just loved the way of narrating from a loser’s point of view. If it had narrated by Raghav, it could be like a routine bollywood film story and Gopal could be projected as a corrupted money maker. But yes CB should have written one more paragraph to justify Gopal’s sacrifice. Love you Chetan the way you narrated the beauty of Aarti. And Yes Raghav sticked to his principles and got the best in life in the end.
but from the loser point of view also the ending is still a little bit filmy .where gopal plan to break-up with aarti using some call-girls and thus sacrifice his love for the sake of raghav.
Good u mentioned the quotes to look out for.. now Reading the book isn’t necessary at all.. Also when say its not up to the levels of CB.. I agree Five point someone was absolute fun and entertainment.
BTW… I am doing book events..
http://manjulikapramod.wordpress.com/2012/11/08/write-a-small-aerogramme-win-a-book/