Book Review #49: Half Girlfriend By Chetan Bhagat

Half Girlfriend (Pic Courtesy: Internet)

Probably one of the dullest books I’ve read in recent times. This book of Chetan Bhagat’s came after a long gap of not so success Revolution 2020. Everybody said it right; Bhagat has after all come out as a Bollywood writer and nothing else. What if I told you this book “Half Girlfriend” doesn’t even comparable to his earlier novels. It is too predictable and most of the story is either copied from his predecessors or from earlier Hindi movies.

What was more astonishing is he dared to publish this book, though he knew that it is a mere movie script!! There is nothing that one can expect while reading a book, leave alone term it as a novel, sorry, a romantic novel! There are absolutely no surprises, no aha moments or anything of that sort. It’s a mere story of 2 college kids, a Bihari boy and a Delhi girl. And, there is regular love story, college classes, placements, love story, sex, break ups, family problems, etc… these things you might have already read in his previous 2 States, 3 Mistakes of My Life, Five Point Someone, etc…

The plot of the novel is as dry as Sahara desert. A Bihari boy or rather a Bihari prince Madhav Jha who is a state level basketball player gets admission in one of the high profile institute in Delhi, St. Stephen’s through sports quota and took up sociology as his major. His only drawback is he can’t speak the English like the city dwellers. During the admission day he comes across a beautiful girl Riya Somani who is also a basketball player that joined St. Stephen’s for English Honors degree.  There you go, bingo!! He instantly connects with this girl and within next 25 pages of the book; he befriends Riya and pretends as Sharukh Khan. Riya (read as Kajol) is not a serious student; rather, she wants to be just friends with Madhav.

As usual book goes into the 2 States mode instantly, Madhav Jha who is now desperate enough to fall in love with Riya tries all his might to get this chic (Riya). But every time he comes up with a brilliant idea, this will get snubbed by Riya. Later Riya clarifies Madhav that, she is just friends with him and pronounces herself as his HALF-GIRLFRIEND. Whoa!!(Slow claps).

Later part of the novel becomes too predictable. One unfortunate incident makes our Sharukh and Kajol gets separated. One and half years later, she comes to college just to drop out. She invites Madhav to her wedding. That’s it. One part of the story ends here. 2^nd part is a regular movie tamasha; Hero Madhav who is now broken out of his love, concentrates more on his career. He studies like there is no tomorrow. He goes to his placements interview and declines a lucrative HSBC offer citing the reason ‘he wants to go back to Bihar and take over the school that his mother runs and build this school as one of the best schools in Bihar’.

Here, Bhagat plays an 80’s movie director role. Madhav, who is the head of his school, gets an appointment with Bill Gates through Gates-Melinda foundation and gets a grant for his school. During one of these meetings in a hotel, he accidently (really??) meets Riya and they decide to reconcile again. She describes all her unfortunate incidents after college, her divorce with her husband, etc… Madhav also explain everything about his life after college. He takes Riya to his home to meet his mother. There is a slight twist here, like all other regular movies, this should be the end. But, here Bhagat plays an “I am smarter than you” type. Madhav’s mother learns that Riya a divorcee and she scolds Riya and warns her to stay out of Madhav’s life. OMG, What a pity??

So, Riya decides to move out of Madhav’s life for 2^nd time. She cooks up a drama that she is suffering from cancer. She leaves a note to Madhav and leaves India. But, our Sharukh is not a quitter (Yeah!!). He starts his hunt for his Kajol despite the protest from his mother. He goes to New York as an UN delegate and stays at his friend’s house for about 3 months. He knew that, Riya wanted to be a singer and she informed him in her college days that, her ambition in life is to play music at a Bar in New York (Duh!!). Rest of the story is kind of guesswork. Bhagat again plays “I am cooler than you” type. Till last day of Madhav’s stay in US, he is unable to locate Riya. On last day, he visits a bar where she is performing and they see each other and then they lived happily ever after.

Conclusion:

First time Chetan Bhagat readers finds this book with full of surprises. Whereas, his regular readers finds this as a same stuff packaged in a new book. Overall, can be read onetime and can forget that instant.   

My Rating:

2.5/5

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