So he naturally turns corrupt and becomes successful. As we are in Bhagat’s universe, Gopal becomes a major failure just because he couldn’t crack the IIT/ NIT entrance examinations. To sum up the story, the main character Gopal loves his childhood friend Aarti who in fact loves their common friend Raghav. Because his stories do implicate that these are the most under researched works of literature ever to come out of India. I wonder if he has even read more than 10 good books in his life. And that is the only option, right? Chetan Bhagat might be the least knowledgeable author this country has ever produced. Bhagat? No Mtech? Not anything else? Oh we get it. He even tells that, in general, if someone does Btech in India, he/she compulsorily wants to do an MBA too.

He seemed to brag about himself in the first couple of pages by listing his achievements in the dragged form of a story if ever there was one. If you cannot even crack that, then and then only private colleges come into the picture. And the admission procedures are centralized state wise. Does Bhagat even know the admission procedure in engineering colleges of India? There are engineering colleges in India which even though are not NIT/IITs are government funded and quiet reputable (In some cases, even as good as the NIT/IITs). If you cannot get into IIT/NITs, the only option left is private colleges or to become a watchman (Seriously, he wrote that). Bhagat implies it on every page that it’s either IIT/NIT or bust.

Two boys try to get into IIT/NIT in order to become engineers. To say that the story is extremely shallow might be the understatement of the year. You almost feel that Bhagat wanted to cash in on the Anna Hazare movement against corruption. Instead, it becomes a highly clichéd love story which has nothing to do with revolution whatsoever. But, Revolution 2020 never even comes close to that. When you name your novel Revolution 2020, one expects a kind of soul searching, revolutionary story about a country that needs change more than ever.

Revolution 2020 by chetan bhagat