May 29, 2008 03:05 PM
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(Updated May 30, 2008 02:15 PM)
Chetan Bhagat, who has become every youngster’s favourite, created waves with his two books-Five Point Someone and One Night @ The Call Center. And therefore everyone, including me, was waiting for his 3rd book with bated breath. Finally, his 3rd venture, THE 3 MISTAKES OF MY LIFE, released in May 2008, and as expected, it meets all the expectations!
The 3 Mistakes Of My Life is about 3 friends-Govind (who is also the narrator and the protagonist), Ish and Omi live in a not-so-famous part of Ahmedabad. Govind was good at maths, Ish was good at cricket while Omi was good in nothing! The trio opens a cricket shop in their area. Soon, they started profiting from their newfound business. But life never remains the same. They had to face big and scary problems later on-earthquake, religious politics, riots and in between, Govind commits his 3 big mistakes of his life.
Chetan Bhagat has a unique style. His previous 2 books comprised of dark humour and were totally filmy! The 3 Mistakes Of My Life is also written in the same style. But at the same time, it has a unique realistic and serious touch, which highly works. Though the story doesn’t have much humour content as compared to his previous books, it successfully manages to entertain.
Like always, Chetan Bhagat has paid special attention to the characters. All characters in the story are nicely described and portrayed. Besides Govind, Ish and Omi, there’s also Ali (who can also be termed as a main character of the story), a 12 year old batsman who could play only 4 balls at a time but had the ability to hit a six in all the 4 balls!
Chetan Bhagat has taken inspirations from real-life situations and this is evident in many places. The classic example is the earthquake sequence, wherein it is shown that the 45-second earthquake fails to damage the 100-year old buildings and 200-year old temple in Govind’s area but completely destructs an upcoming mall. This is very true as the new buildings nowadays are quite shoddy.
But Chetan Bhagat wins completely in the last part of the book, which deals with the riots. Though it’s a sensitive topic, Chetan Bhagat wonderfully handled it and it actually shocks you because it is surprising to see that an author who wrote trendy and sexy stories of IITs and Call Centers can also amazingly handle such an issue. And the best part, he doesn’t forget to make you laugh, even though it was the book’s most serious situation (Remember Govind getting an SMS from Vidya?)! Mr Bhagat, you certainly deserve a pat on your back!
It should be noted that the main characters of The 3 Mistakes Of My Life-Govind, Ish and Omi are very identical to the main characters of Five Point Someone-Hari, Ryan and Alok. While Govind’s character and Hari’s character is very much identical; Ish and Omi’s characters are very similar to that Ryan and Alok respectively.
So is The 3 Mistakes Of My Life free of flaws? Unfortunately, No. The book starts in such a way that it seemed that it wont be one of those cool types of stories, like Five Point Someone. But later, it does turn in one of those types. The book would have created more effect if it would have not taken that path. Also, the book could have done away with one or two sequences. For instance, the Ind-Aus 2001 Test Match scene was interesting but it served no purpose to the story.
But overall, the book is thoroughly interesting and should not be missed. Also, the prologue and epilogue of The 3 Mistakes Of My Life was much better than that of One Night @ The Call Center. Like the call center story, Chetan Bhagat is also a part of the prologue but his presence served better purpose to this story. And the prologue begins wonderfully-Chetan Bhagat getting a 19-sentence mail from Govind who claims to have taken a sleeping pill each time he ended writing a sentence! Scary isn’t it?!
Like Five Point Someone and One Night @ The Call Center, I am sure that The 3 Mistakes Of My Life will also turned into a feature film. The directors and producers must have already queued outside Chetan’s residence. Since many days, I am thinking as to which Bollywood actor is capable of playing Govind, Ish and Omi. But I fail to find a satisfactory answer. But one thing is clear-Ali’s role should be given to none other than Darsheel Safary, the brilliant actor of Taare Zameen Par! I don’t think any other child actor would be able to do justice like Darsheel! Mr Chetan, are you listening?
On the whole, The 3 Mistakes Of My Life is a timepass and excellent entertainer like Chetan Bhagat’s last 2 books. If you have already read Chetan’s Five Point Someone and One Night @ The Call Center, you should not even think of missing it! Go get it!!
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