400 days by Chetan Bhagat

Book review

Rating 2/5

Reading an e-book after three months! Ever since I am hooked into audio books, it’s strange going back to reading! But can’t imagine listening to an Audiobook of Chetan Bhagat book!

No spoilers here! So you can continue without fear!

Now there are two types of Indian book readers, one who admit that they do read Chetan Bhagat; you can guess the second! If you are in India then somehow Chetan Bhagat gets one trend right! Or at least it may be a future script of a movie!
This one though in current style is more of a web series! Some saas bahu masala, then a lonely wife, a young defective; err I mean detective! A no good husband, one missing girl and some suspense!

Like I mentioned above about Chetan getting one trend right; in revolution 2020 it was how accurately he described the whole Kota coaching situation including Bansals!
In half girl friend he depicted the language problems of a Bihari in a university campus. In one night he told the problems of deadline and irritating boss! And so on…

He also tries to get either his IIT or IIM educated on the lead protagonist and somehow the lead will be based on him. Maybe that is the reason why the lead bends twists and turns all rules of his so called detective agency to finally sleep with the client one way or the other! If the description of the client or any character in the novel is done with more than three lines then rest assured the lead will eventually get some!

With lots of loopholes we are presented with a kidnapping and a mother who resembles the Disha Patani of Baghi 2 with her missing baby and only one person who helps her! Of course Keshav is no Tiger Shroff and here he supposedly uses his bad timing and his great interaction ability with kids specially not his! To get information and solve the case! The one clue which hits you in the face takes so many pages to reach!

Chetan started as a college student and struggling professionals but this detective agency in this day and age makes not sense when you know that Keshav is neither clever nor technically capable (most computer stuff is being done by his partner!). Every hundred page we are reminded by one of the two that he is a detective! Like in Big Bang Sheldon says, “If you have to ask, you are Robin and not Batman!”

The language is a breeze and there are very few characters so that you will not get confused and the final twist is unexpected which is good in such mysteries! But all the time from getting the case you just want to skip to the end! And just like revolution 2020, here also the hero apparently sacrifices the dessert after having eaten the same (pardon the puns! It’s not to insult or belittle anyone but its the only way to make the point without any spoilers!).

Also I am sure that Chetan would have gone for a tour of Kerala and those cuisines and places are added in the story without any need! In the days of Chetan is still in the saas bahu era and deliberately makes the mother in law as cruel as possible which was not necessary since the daughter in law actually turned out to do everything the mother in law feared! Some dirt about DNA test thrown around for good measure! Of course the result came against mother in law but I wonder what the result would be now! Maybe the sequel those 10 days in Kochi may throw some light!

Read it since eventually you would just want to get it over with! With a good speed you can finish it in a day and move on!