Chetan Bhagat: Half girlfriend debate

This blog is written as a part of online discussion at Department of English

Dilip Barad sir,

Dear All,

We have viewed two TV discussions on Chetan Bhagat’s new novel ‘Half Girlfriend’

 You are supposed to give your opinion on Chetan Bhagat Phenomenon in Indian English Literature.

Sem 1:

You can view Chetan Bhagat as Dryden views Shakespeare in comparison to Ben Johnson and other writers. He was able to see some merits along with demerits in Shakespeare. It will be an exaggeration if we say that Chetan Bhagat will be remembered as Shakespeare of India (in a sense that Shakespeare was popular dramatist with little critical acclaim in his days).

 

Sem 3:

Along with above given point, you can view it as fourth goal of Cultural Studies i.e. ‘Cultural Studies analyzes not only the cultural work, but also the means of production.”

How marketing has become important for selling literature?

Literature as a commodity.

Literature is a product to be sold to the consumers.

How far is it necessary in this process of ‘selling book’ to be politically, culturally, socially CORRECT?

If the writer writes about bitter truths of society / if he tries to present ugly X-Ray image of society/culture, WILL HE BE ABLE TO SELL HIS BOOKS?

If the answer is NO. Can we say that CB plays very safe in being politically, culturally, socially on the RIGHT side of the things?

Is that the secret of his success?

If NO. What else can be the secret KEY to unlock the secret of his stupendous success?

Following is my reply...

Respected sir,

Thank you very much for bringing into discussion very current issue of Chetan Bhagat.

Sir recently I have read Bhagat’s  novels One Night @ the Call Center  and Five point someone. and  also watch both of his videos.

While reading his novels I realize his great strength of story telling/narrative technique. Theme of his novels are largely  based on Young Generation of India.Characters  in the novel  One Night @ the Call Center  like Shyam, Varun, Military uncle,Priyanka, Esha and Radhika are LIFELIKE. In one or the another way we can compare ourself with the characters.stories of his novels are very common, it comes from our routine life but it is Bhagat’s creativity and way of presentation that makes it more interesting.

It is exaggeration to call him Shakespeare of our time but now a days he is one of the most popular English writer in our country. The reason is that when we read English or American literature it becomes difficult for all the readers to understand that concept of many of the books, like colonialism, imperialism, feminism, history of that country etc. because books represents culture of society  and we are not part of that society so it is difficult to understand. But when we read books of Chetan Bhagat his Setting/background, concept, characters, word selection every thing is Indian. Even word to word translation of hindi words and proverbs creats humour in the novel. when we read his novels it looks like as if we are watching movies or things are happening in front of our eyes, Just according to Dryden’s definition that play should be JUST and LIVELY image. He presents reality of our contemporary reality as it is(JUST). He brought out reality, truth of society(especially youth),  it may be harsh, difficult to accept. 

He is good writer ,writing about  current issues of the society and even readers are appreciating his writing then even critics are criticizing him, and calling him Salman khan or Rakhi sawant of Indian writing in English. It is critic’s job to criticize. But perhaps time will come when Chetan Bhagat will considered as a CLASSIC writer as now we have Shakespeare. If we look back into the history then we find that those writer who are consider as a greatest writer now a days , they were neither given importance in their lifetime nor their work was considered as a good work. There are many examples in which author themselves had burnt their books due to outer social, political and religion forces. Or they