One Indian Girl – not that simple one Indian girl, rather a complete pack of ‘feminist’ Indian girl by Mr Chetan Bhagat took the streets of books by storm a year back and a little before than that. One Indian Girl was aimed to be a revolution but it crash-landed and remained a butt of jokes for many months after the release of the book. Year after, when I look back at the book and try to re-read it and re-analyse it, what I find is something quite fantastic. The book, howsoever bold and open about love, sex, relationships and life, is more patriarchal than Chetan Bhagat could have proposed it to be!
The book is only having a female body as the central character – she thinks – yes; she acts – yes; she feels – yes; she does not exist. Chetan has only used her to show how men behave and how women react to that behaviour and in general, this is what feminism is all about in India – it’s more reactionary and active; it is cold and passive and simply men-bashing is what feminism is all about for the Indian feminists. And I love it!
Nevertheless, most of the readers who read Chetan Bhagat’s One Indian Girl, only enjoyed it. They did seldom bother for the message in it because they could either not find it or did not care to find it. They only did what Chetan Bhagat tried to make them do – share the respective page numbers with their friends and pass the buck. “Hey, is page me jabardast sex scene hai! Maja aa gaya.”
And this, unfortunately, is the same use of feminism that the Bollywood industry does. They seldom care about the issue; they only care about the use of issue. Chetan Bhagat played safe and smart and he tried to become a hero out of a bold feministic cause like Shobha De tried to do many years ago. Today, we all know where these authors are – trying to stay relevant with their political hot-shots. Their fiction, I can say it loud, sucks!
by Kavish for TBB
That's an amusing yet thought-provoking post!