The leaf to borrow from Chetan Bhagat

That Chetan Bhagat's novels make entertaining movies and are well received by critics, unlike the novels themselves, is a lesson for Bollywood to invest more in its script writers

If you were an engineering student, especially the one who went to an IIT or an NIT (earlier called REC) in the last decade, the probability that you have sworn by Chetan Bhagat at some point in time would be high. I was never in that elite circle and the first time I heard about him was when I met my school gang in the mid-term break of our first year in college. From what I heard, the next Salman Rushdie had arrived and so I bought a copy of ‘Five Point Someone’ the very next day. The book was an easy read but by the time I was done with it, I realised that the reason why Bhagat had captured my friends’ imaginations was because he was telling them a fantasy based in their reality. The writing was pretty mediocre in itself.

 

By the time Raju Hirani decided to make “3 Idiots” in 2009, Bhagat had penned 3 more books, the latest being 2 States, which had come out that very year. The box office success of “3 Idiots” was phenomenal. The story had been changed to make it more in-line with the Bollywood formula and arguably was a better package.

 

Subsequently, ‘The Three Mistakes of My Life’ became ‘Kai Po Che’ and ‘2 States’ was also made retaining the same name. Both these movies have done well at the box office and well received by critiques as well. Now one hears that ‘Revolution 2020’ is also going to appear on the silver screen soon. So, except ‘One Night At  A Call Center’ which became ‘Hello’, all of Chetan Bhagat’s novels have been adapted on the celluloid successfully. That’s a good strike rate.  

 

So what gives Chetan Bhagat’s novels-turned films the X-factor to get acclaimed as well?  After all, his novels are bestsellers but don’t exactly enthuse the literary kinds. The answer is simple. They have a story to tell, which is a rarity in Bollywood. Before the young brigade in the cinema fraternity scorn at my statement, let me quickly elaborate.

 

Hindi cinema in the last 2-3 years has become a game of numbers. The Salman Khan films raked in the moolah and the 100 crore figure became a ‘must achieve’ benchmark. However, if we keep the big boys (big investment and big return films) out of the picture and concentrate on the medium budget films, all the films which (sporadically, if I may say) gave good returns on investment were story driven. Be it an ‘English Vinglish’, ‘Oh My God!’, ‘Vicky Donor’ or the latest toast of tinsel town, ‘Queen’, the underlying common theme is a good story.

 

On this parameter, a Chetan Bhagat becomes supremely important. A common perception is that Bhagat uses common parlance and that is a reason why critiques don’t like him. To my mind that’s a silly excuse. Many renowned bestselling authors who have also been well received in the world of literature have never used complex language. The problem of Bhagat’s novels is that they tend to digress- a good author can ill afford this in the long run. But a movie unlike a novel has the backup of visuals to tie up its loose ends. In a novel, the author has to keep your imagination captivated and if he fails to that, the book fails, at least critically.

 

However, give that mediocre novel to a good director and the chances that a refined product on celluloid will emerge is much higher. In other words, Chetan Bhagat’s success in Bollywood proves that a story is still the backbone of a good movie. Production houses and other big investors need to invest better on their script writers and the story content.

The future of Chetan Bhagat, the novelist is for his own to determine but his success in films should be definitely celebrated and taken inspiration from. The ‘industry’ has been shown the light at the end of the tunnel.