2 States: Good, Bad & the Ugly. Review on 2 States The Story Of My Marriage - Chetan Bhagat

I am not going to review this product neither from literary point of view , nor going to complain that it has Bollywood plot, because the author accepts his literary limitations and writing a Bollywood in his work.

Good :

First, the intention of the novel is good. It wants to bring out the racial prejudices that still exist among people belonging to different states and more evident as North-South divide. Is it "dark and dirty secrets of Indian society" that author wants to bring out ? No. But any guy/gal can easily relate to the story, given 90% of our love marriages are inter-community.That is the strong point in author. he picks the story that sells.90% MBA and 10% author.

Being south Indian , I could relate to some of the observations he makes about habits , attitudes of south Indians. Like Tamil auto driver calling Rajini as "Thalaiver" and the natural tendency of south Indian especially Tamilians to hide their skills under the bushel and mistaking marketing with boasting.just relative perspective.

Some good sense of humour to kill the growing boredom.

Bad & Ugly:

There are two ways to look at the racial comments and humour in this novel.Punjabi characters making racial comments about south Indians, may be this what happened in his real life and author wanted to be true to the characters.Even Krish making some observations about Tamil culture and habits is bit understandable : Punjabi guy landing in Chennai for first time and getting frustrated with new people around him. But at many places , it comes as comment in present tense which I felt like coming from the author and not from protagonist - example "Tamil sense of humour, if there is any, is really and acquired taste" and "This is the only silent rebellion is their otherwise repressed, docile personality".Could sense some arrogance attitude here.

Character of Ananya is more illogical than logical.Beauty doll with lots of attitude who can pick fight with anybody, anytime and anywhere. I wanted to see strong feminine character but ended up with succubus.Don't blame the author he has to finish off the novel within 300 pages and ROI on character development is less given his books are sold @ Rs. 95.

There is an overdose  references to sex and porn sprinkled to make our "youth" turn the pages.No moral policing just saying that if you want to beat the author include more porn in your writing.Actually sex is the thread that holds novel together.First they start with sex , part with sex meet again in Chennai with sex ..trying for sex in Delhi and sex for national integration.In between asking Manju about porn , uncle looked like as if bla bla "porn collection" ... hands free cleavage, Pummy aunty cleavage ATM.Sex sells.Thank god author didn't reference "that" little help as in 3MOL dedication."Making love for country sake" - its cringe worthy

Many humour with missed punch line, and some page filler in the name of humour. Description about food as page fillers. "Something something mentioned something many something places"

I felt the entire Citibank episode to be a self-glorification part. And fresh management trainee straight from college making the boss fall on his knee seeking help . Krish black mailing boss.Somebody tell the author the deference between fiction and bull  story.Author reminding us that he is from "IIMA" at may places.This is okay compared to other 2 earlier books where author begins with utter lie : girl asking him to write novel on call center and some guy from Gujarat sending him a mail @ impossible mail id .

Anany's parents in spite of knowing Krish to be her boyfriend allow Krish to conduct tuition for Manju. What a poor family Banker father with modern daughter working in HLL didn't have enough money to pay off tuition fees for his son. Ananya 's mom serving Krish "rasam" next day after knowing that he has kissed "traditional" daughter publicly. Its okay to have Bollywood plot, but copying the scenes straight from some old movies in the name of creation not a good trend.Again this an age of re-mix.

In book promotion interview author said every individual should marry outside one's community. If I fall for a girl of my own community or choose to marry her , am I doing grave injustice to national integration.If I marry any foreign girl am I betraying my own country?Now author is preaching us whom should we mate with.Whom should I mate with is my animal instinct, I need not sugar-coat it with national integration or service to humanity

Concluding here. Have already spent enough time on this pseudo-art. I didn't want this to be my first post on MS.

Anyway, I am just reviewing a product .