2 States - Chetan Bhagat

Chetan Bhagat's novels are like item songs. They are instant hits, every one talks about it when it is released and everyone reads it .Two years down the line, people would not remember it as a classic novel, but do remember just as a good timepass book. The novel "2 STATES" is a super duper item number!!

Though chetan takes an often told and seen topic like inter-state / inter-cultural marriage for this book, what sets this book apart is the writing. There are loads of witty lines, humorous situations and clever comparisons that manage to keep a smile on your face all through the book. Chetan has a keen sense of observation of things happening around him and makes a good use of them at the right places all through the book. Though chetan puts a disclaimer at the beginning of the book that he is intentionally not making fun of any community in this book, he does make whole loads of fun at tamilians and punjabis. He goes over board w.r.t tamilians and this might not go well with tamilians unless he / she doesnt take such things seriouly considering the fact that it is just a book..To compensate for it, chethan does make fun of punjabis , but restricts it just to their craze for paneer and whiskey.

Though the characters are few, many of them are interesting by their actions / behaviour. Leading lady Ananya and Citibank-chennai's boss BALA stand out. Not sure if Chetan writes books keeping in mind that they will be made to films in future or the novels just turn out to be movies, but this novel is an ideal movie material. There are too many filmy scenes and most of them turn out to be entertaining. Some characters like the hero’s dad and the concert of heroine’s mother are very very filmy !!..

On the whole, this is a very smartly written book which sticks to reality. It has loads of humor and makes a good read for 4 hours. Once you read the book, u will surely have the characters and situations running in your head and making you smile for no reason. Like 5.someone, I am sure I won’t remember the characters / situations / lines of this book after two years, but for now i have thoroughly enjoyed reading this book