Cheaten Bhagat

The Concept Chetan Bhagat’s book Five Point Someone is a hilarious issue of his fertile mind A mind that derates the present education system and the way, it plays with the minds of the students. The first time, I, an Arts Graduate picked up the book, I was awestruck. Not that I take less interest in IIT as commerce has always been repelling, but the way, the author had juxtaposed it’s framework with the novelty of a novel as well as the present system of education jo acche accho ko hara deta hai. Well, this is no joke. In Chetan’s own words: ‘The Indian Education System is a problem that can be fixed. It affects the country's future, impacts almost every family,………………………………………………….’ There are two main problems: one, the supply of good college seats and, two, the actual course content and intent behind education.’ He talks at length about the scarcity or rather the inability of our government to come up with A-grade institutions. ‘That means we need 10 lakh good, A-grade, branded college seats per year’. And secondly, the number of A-grade potential students as regards the seats available for them in these colleges. Chetan is of the opinion that when the aviation sector or the nuclear power enjoys the benefits of the country’s economy, then why does the real-estate sector actually not come up with universities in collaboration with the government? Parents need not send students abroad. Now, this is critical and it comes from a critical mind. The Book. The plot line- people meet at ragging, the first class with definition of machine, the friends separate, Alok moves with Venkat, Ryan helps Alok’s father, Alok rejoins group etc etc…all goes to make the book hilarious By all, I mean ‘The setting, characters, plotline, dramatic twists and turns, one-liners, theme, message’. Chetan is upset, ‘The education system's second problem: the course content itself. What do we teach in school and college? And how much do you use it in daily life later’ and this reflects in the way the trio plots to steal the original question papers, woos the daughter and manages the key etc etc… The book is a very good read and as I quote Santosh Desai’s views on ‘entertainment’, 'entertainment' seems to be contained entirely in the idea of amusement, diversion and distraction, and needs to be supplemented with other descriptions when we want to connote any use of the mind’. The book in every sense is a piece of entertainment. The controversy. It is impossible for one who has read the book, not to find the similarity that it depicts. What is controversial, is the mentality of Raju and Vinod not to give Chetan, his credit, for the fear of having to part away with the share that Chetan truly deserves. It is quite clear that a director of Munnabhai MBBS fame would surely come up with a film , that after the attack on the medical practitioners would turn to educators. Chetan is genuinely hurt when he echoes in his blog, I wanted to see the final script – it was never shown to me. I wanted to see the film before release – it was not shown to me (even though trials had been done for people). What’s more, the makers had called me to their office and pressured me several times to withdraw my ‘Based on a novel by’ credit, which was by contract..’ The question is, why did Raju at all choose to resort to such techniques? He could as well choose to make a sequel where he could show his originality and not hurt anyone’s sentiments? I have been grappling with it for two years, but kept silent about it.Even Amir was told not read the book.' ‘The makers have accused me of seeking fame – when clearly it is the other way round. They’ve taken my story to make fame for themselves, and shut me out of it'. ‘ Imagine someone takes your child, dresses him up and tells the world it is theirs. I’ve felt the pain for two years on this issue but I kept silent on it’. If Bhagat has felt the pain, it surely does and to a certain extent will have it’s effect on the makers of the movie. In conclusion. On one hand Chetan sympathises with Amir, on the other hand he says, If AK calls me jerk, shmuck, whatever - thats not facts, that's his view and i am not obligated to react’ . Who is on the right, we don’t know. What we know, is that the movie has beaten Avtaar and has cheated the writer off his due credits. ZEE News is absolutely correct when they term a report as ‘Teen se bhi zyada idiots’