A Book Review -- Five Point Someone

Five Point Someone

-- For the Novice Readers

Following the release and success of the movie ‘3 Idiots’, this book received more than its share of coverage – some good and some belligerent.  It was at that point I decided to pick up a copy.  This is my review of the book entitled Five Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat.

Set in the present time, situated within the campus of Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.  This novel is Chetan Bhagat’s exploration of life and quality of IIT education through the eyes of three academically struggling mechanical engineering students, portraying a dark and chilling depiction of this premium institute.  It outlines the dominance of the institute over personal life and how important choices are made under pressure and stress.  Some critics have related Hari’s character to Chetan’s experiences and learnings.  Bhagat maintains that he penned this novel to explicitly showcase another side of IIT, to provide desiring students a holistic perspective of this institute.

The story revolves around Hari and his friends, the events/episodes portraying their struggles and endeavours to graduate with a job -- where a job offer is indicative of successful time invested at IIT. The narration weaves in the relationships with their respective families, professors, peers and in the case of the author, his budding relationship with his girlfriend.    The story is a multi-faceted account of the IIT experience going well beyond the four walls of the institute, providing a holistic view of the episodes in the life of the students.

The novel opens with Hari, the narrator, entering IIT on his first day, and concludes on his graduation from the institute.  The book is a sequential narration of the events and challenges surrounding the life of Hari during his institute days.  His two friends – Ryan & Alok are the other primary protagonists.  Hari’s girlfriend is also an integral member for the plot and conclusion of the book.  Chetan pulls in other characters as well -- professors, peers, parents etc, portraying the multi-dimensional relationships a student is expected to handle.  As readers we are exposed to Hari’s perspective and viewpoint, thus the story predominantly focuses on the authors interests and activities. 

The ‘three idiots’  have been casted as below average students and struggle to maintain a healthy and fun-loving lifestyle, as they are not too fixated with high grades.  The boys go through various student-like adventures, inside and outside of the institute, testing their friendship and questioning their objectives and expectations from the institute and life.  Hari has a chance encounter with Neha, the daughter of the head of his department. The narrative develops this relationship, which is critical for the climax and conclusion of the novel.  Alongside, the author surfaces the deficiencies in the IIT system (as also detailed in the movie).  The novel concludes with the friends graduating, each having a job to mark their successful departure, and brings an end to the adventures and roller-coaster life ride of the friends. 

The first part of the novel deals with the emotions and enthusiasm of Hari and his friends as they rebel against the education system of the premium engineering institutes of India.  Thereon, when the friends are at comfort with their below average performance, the novel outlines the expeditions that Hari, with the support of friends, gets involved in to impress Neha in an endeavour to ensure a long-term sustainable relationship. 

An enjoyable and fast-paced book keeping the reader interested to turn the page.  A nostalgic stroll for past students touching upon the challenges faced in study-life balance, peer pressure, relationship with professors, and trying to manage relationships outside of the institute. 

The novel reads like a narration with simplistic and easy to read language.  This style is more suitable for novice readers, as an introduction to the benefits of reading, with simplified characters, situations and relationships.  Singular dimensions of the characters are exposed.  We don’t learn the reason behind their low-scores, despite being high calibre students earlier; the character weaknesses and internal conflicts are not surfaced.  Neha’s character remains undeveloped, not enabling the readers to understand her as a person and individual.  Hari narrates the books based upon visual observations, not employing emotions, feelings, thoughts or sensations.  Some major decisions made by the protagonists appear premature, as if the characters were not college students but teenagers.  This leaves the reader with an unsatisfactory feeling of ‘are you serious’.

The book prematurely concludes when the friends graduate, leaving too many open questions which are left for the readers imagination.  The author though justifies the ‘premature’ conclusion with the ending of the IIT chapter for the friends.  Nevertheless, what happens with Neha and Hari is critical as major parts of the storyline revolve around this relationship.  This made me feel that the story did not have a conclusive ending. 

The primary audience for this book appeared to be IIT enthusiasts, educating them about another dimension of the prestigious institute.  There was very little take-away for other readers, not much that i could reflect upon turning the last leaf.    The narration is fast paced, but simplistic in nature, thus does not leave the reader with something to dwell upon or think about.  It is a good book for novice readers to introduce them easily into the art of reading.  In synthesis, it is a comfortable and easy read to pass time, not a memorable piece of literature though. 

There are strong correlations between the movie ‘3 Idiots’ and this book.  Basic storyline, characters, events have been inspired from the book, and to some extent replicated very closely.  But the movie is able to develop a much stronger storyline, character, plot and climax with abundant learnings for a broad category of people across all walks of life.  While the movie was better, one should recognize Bhagat for his piece of literature that was more than inspirational for the screenplay of the movie.