400 days by Chetan bhagat – book review

This book is probably the better of all his previous efforts is the statement with which the review begins and possibly the biggest by number of pages as well. Chetan Bhagat is probably the most vilified author in the country, whose critics have already ensured he is the most read English novelist in the country, with over a million copies in circulation. The nation is divided on whether he is a good author or not, but numbers don’t lie. Many of his novels have been scripted into biggest blockbusters hindi cinema has ever seen, notable of the lot being “3 idiots”. His works may not set the literary Thames on fire, but sure are unrivalled time pass reads. Right from the title, he has a template which he repeats to successful effect in most of his novels. The title will always carry some numeral, whether it is forced or even remotely related to the story. There will be a “fatso” guy so fond of eating and Punjabi parents. South Indians will mostly be negative or prudes at best and somehow their daughters will be rebels, with devil may care attitude towards the “morals” of the society. His recent books have become more like a series, featuring Keshav (a part-time full-time detective) with his rolly polly friend Golu (computer/mobile/cyber security/ anything goes expert), who take up cases that wouldn’t find mention on the Sony Tv’s CID. In between, either of the duo will fall in love with their “clients” and every book will have a mandatory intercourse section between Keshav and the leading lady of the book. Rather than making it James Bond style womanizer mould, Keshav will be all vulnerable and love struck, only to fall out of that relation in the end, either because his lover would be the villain or she would have to revert to her old family to take care of her kids or husband. Ditto in this book as well.

What is different in this one is that, for a change, the twists around the “whodunnit” was quite interesting and decent. For a slow burning cold case, the volume of the book felt justified. The pacing was uniform with no magic jumps in logic leading to grand reveal. It felt as if, he had already written this book with a movie script format in mind and all that is needed now is to find a producer who can pick this up. That adds to the advantage of the book in visualizing the scenes. Above all, it touches upon a highly sensitive and relevant topic of the day – child abuse and uncontrollable power of social media apps. The perils of exposing children to Instagram and how it is possible breeding ground for vultures who wouldn’t spare even kids, how the children in their early teens budding into the rebel mode gets conned by false profiles, the dangers that lurk within the family setup itself, finally the importance of parenting and how watchful or aware they should be of what their kids are doing – every single topic is dealt with in the course of the investigation and the more they dig in to unearth the clues, the scarier it becomes on real world comparison. As a story, it is probably the most possible and relatable scenario for any parent of a girl child and on the enormous amount of responsibilities on their shoulders to ensure smooth and safe passage for their kids into adulthood.

The story takes a while to pickup speed and all those backdrops really help in setting the tempo of the story. Keshav is assigned a kidnapping case gone cold for more than 8 months by his apartment township lady, who also happens to be the heroine of this story. Her daughter gets kidnapped from within their house and despite best efforts by police, she remains untraceable. They receive a courier carrying some ash and blood soaked dress of the kid but still the mother believes her daughter is alive somewhere and seeks the help of the detective. How Keshav and Golu unravels the clues from the Instagram account and mobile of the missing kid, how it takes Keshav all the way across Kochi and back to Delhi, falling in love and having an affair with the leading lady in the process, eventually finding the kid forms the rest of the story. 

As mentioned upfront, this is probably the better one compared to all his other recent novels and with a familiar setup being propped up, wouldn’t be surprised if Keshav/Golu becomes the Bollywood detective duo franchise pretty soon.