12 Years: My Messed-up Love Story by Chetan Bhagat
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My take on the book:
Saket Khurana has just returned to Mumbai from the United States leaving behind his high paying job as he is in the middle of a nasty divorce with his estranged wife Raashi. With an intention to follow his passion, he begins a new career as standup comedian at his best friend Mudit’s comedy club. When he meets Payal Jain during one of his events, Saket is instantly attracted to her, though he has decided not to marry again, after parting with eighty percent of his assets as alimony to his ex-wife.
Payal, the Stanford-return smart young girl who is employed with one of the leading private equity firms, and never had a boyfriend, is also attracted to Saket. After a year of living-in when Payal brings up her relationship with her orthodox parents, they strongly object to her marriage with Saket; and their reasons — Saket is a divorcee, he is thirty four while Payal is twenty two years old, he is not a Jain, and he is not in a profession that Payal’s parents could explain to everyone.
As Payal’s parents found a match for her with Parimal Pain, son of their close family friends, Saket tries every possible way to convince Payal’s parents that he is the right choice for their daughter. Will Payal’s parents agree to their marriage or will the twelve year age-gap ruin Saket’s chances with Payal, forms the rest of the story.
The story begins on the premise of the protagonists with considerable age-gap, Saket being a divorcee, does not have a conventional job and that he does not belong to the same caste/religion/has eating habits as Payal. While their relationship thrives irrespective of these differences, marriage with consent of Payal’s parents brings them forth. The author highlights how marriages in Indian society, especially those involving parental consent, are based on a number of external factors which do not include love and compatibility between the couple.
The first half of the story where the love story develops between the protagonists and the consecutive conflict due to parental disagreement is fast paced and keeps the reader engaged. The story is narrated for the major part by Saket so the reader gets the story from his perspective. There is a brief piece in the second half where Payal narrates her version but I personally felt it is not as impactful as it should be.
Saket’s character keeps evolving throughout the story with multiple shades, and even with the negative shades he is more relatable than Payal. Payal has the typical Indian girl’s characterization who keeps oscillating between being bold and naive, easily influenced by toxic friends and family. My biggest disappointment is from Payal and her parents’ behaviour between both the halves of the story as her parent’s emotional blackmail and stubbornness seems to have suddenly vanished towards the end.
The few supporting characters like Saket’s friend Mudit and Payal’s friend Akanksha are cliched and behave as expected. The story has a good premise of protagonists with different backgrounds and personalities, but a good first half slowly moves into a second half which gets predictable and boring at places. Though the book is over 400 pages, the narration is fast and it does not feel lengthy.
If you like reading urban contemporary romances then this will entertain you.
My rating:
3.5/5.
This review is part of the Blogchatter Book Review Program