Yet another Chetan Bhagat book review. Despite all my raves and rants, i never miss reading a single novel of his. That says something about me?!! Anyways.
As often i mention about his books, there is a template setting, that starts from the name itself. There should be some number associated with it, 5 point someone, one night @call center etc. It was at the risk of getting into rational number territory considering the title "half girlfriend". But since rational is something that is generally not associated with his books, probably he reverted to whole numbers with this one. There i go again. Why read the book if there is so much to complain, duh!!? But still i am not that suave a reader to feast only on classics. My rest of the reading list is not that fancy either.
Coming back to the book, there are major changes for fellow readers of CB, who follow the template to rote. There do exist IITians and IIT as backdrop and guys entering forbidden territory of girl's hostel and almost no pre marital physical scenes, which - spoiler alert - does happen per the template towards the end. And of course, with the lead guy being the narrator, telling his story to the author on his flight back home, that is almost always the pretext for his stories, is the same in this as well. These apart, credit to CB (!!) for trying out something different. Its not your typical love story and to "quote" the author, its an "unlove" story (whatever the hell it means).
The theme of the book is crime and detective work. How much ever amateurish it has been designed and written, its way off from his usual mix and match supposedly rom-com stuff that he dishes out on his books. There is this guy, who is the narrator, who has been dumped by his girl, gets a message to visit her on the night of her birthday, only to be found dead. The lovesick ex-boyfriend of our hero, goes heads over heels into investigating the murder, from being the first accused, arrested by the police. Since the girl is a Kashmiri, there are ample references to the situation there and as if someone restricted the author from expressing his real thoughts, which would result in controversy over the otherwise silly book, the characters refrain themselves, literally, every time they enter into a conversation about Kashmir and RSS. CB should take a leaf out of how Ilaya thalapathy Vijay markets his movies in tamil. Controversy sells like anything and if at all the story, it would've made up for free publicity for the book. The hero, being a IIT coaching center faculty (what else could he have been in a CB book) along with his bumbling, near gay friend (which is disproved in the end with his fascination for "Tinder" girls), embarks on the investigative journey that takes him on a Bharath darshan from Delhi to Srinagar to Phalgam to Hyderabad and back to Delhi. The investigation resembles more of Pink Panther than Poirot. Not sure if it was intended or by accident though. Finally the grand reveal of the killer!! Even the crime patrol on Sony would've retained some thrill. The reason for the murder couldn't have been any more contrived as CB has literally thrown his heroine under the bus for the sake of a twist. No points from feminists i guess. And such utter and unbiased racism towards south Indians and their complexions is another template feature that is carried out shamelessly on this one as well. Way to go CB. "Black black ugly ugly" it is.
Gils verdict - The girl in room 105 is what happens when Sajid Khan tries to be Satyajit Ray. Again, there goes the prejudiced me in banishing the creative capacity of individuals. But this is Chetan baghat's book we are talking about. If its not prejudiced, then what else can it be!!
As often i mention about his books, there is a template setting, that starts from the name itself. There should be some number associated with it, 5 point someone, one night @call center etc. It was at the risk of getting into rational number territory considering the title "half girlfriend". But since rational is something that is generally not associated with his books, probably he reverted to whole numbers with this one. There i go again. Why read the book if there is so much to complain, duh!!? But still i am not that suave a reader to feast only on classics. My rest of the reading list is not that fancy either.
Coming back to the book, there are major changes for fellow readers of CB, who follow the template to rote. There do exist IITians and IIT as backdrop and guys entering forbidden territory of girl's hostel and almost no pre marital physical scenes, which - spoiler alert - does happen per the template towards the end. And of course, with the lead guy being the narrator, telling his story to the author on his flight back home, that is almost always the pretext for his stories, is the same in this as well. These apart, credit to CB (!!) for trying out something different. Its not your typical love story and to "quote" the author, its an "unlove" story (whatever the hell it means).
The theme of the book is crime and detective work. How much ever amateurish it has been designed and written, its way off from his usual mix and match supposedly rom-com stuff that he dishes out on his books. There is this guy, who is the narrator, who has been dumped by his girl, gets a message to visit her on the night of her birthday, only to be found dead. The lovesick ex-boyfriend of our hero, goes heads over heels into investigating the murder, from being the first accused, arrested by the police. Since the girl is a Kashmiri, there are ample references to the situation there and as if someone restricted the author from expressing his real thoughts, which would result in controversy over the otherwise silly book, the characters refrain themselves, literally, every time they enter into a conversation about Kashmir and RSS. CB should take a leaf out of how Ilaya thalapathy Vijay markets his movies in tamil. Controversy sells like anything and if at all the story, it would've made up for free publicity for the book. The hero, being a IIT coaching center faculty (what else could he have been in a CB book) along with his bumbling, near gay friend (which is disproved in the end with his fascination for "Tinder" girls), embarks on the investigative journey that takes him on a Bharath darshan from Delhi to Srinagar to Phalgam to Hyderabad and back to Delhi. The investigation resembles more of Pink Panther than Poirot. Not sure if it was intended or by accident though. Finally the grand reveal of the killer!! Even the crime patrol on Sony would've retained some thrill. The reason for the murder couldn't have been any more contrived as CB has literally thrown his heroine under the bus for the sake of a twist. No points from feminists i guess. And such utter and unbiased racism towards south Indians and their complexions is another template feature that is carried out shamelessly on this one as well. Way to go CB. "Black black ugly ugly" it is.
Gils verdict - The girl in room 105 is what happens when Sajid Khan tries to be Satyajit Ray. Again, there goes the prejudiced me in banishing the creative capacity of individuals. But this is Chetan baghat's book we are talking about. If its not prejudiced, then what else can it be!!
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