Dear Chetan Bhagat, don’t ‘KICK’ logic out when you talk about cracker ban

Dear CB,

My first brush with you was back in school, when I picked up a certain ‘Five Point Someone’, a simple story of a few engineers with differing perspectives on life, love and career. The next few books of yours saw me through college, and then I outgrew you.

My second encounter with you came in the form of your screenwriting for the movie ‘Kai Po Che!’, which was one of your mistakes *oops* books, that was adapted into a movie, and turned out to be surprisingly good. However, whatever pattern your books may follow, one has to admit that the movie adaptations have so far been good, with significant changes in the script and story to make it more appealing, making you as the writer of the masses, someone who can turn their thoughts around with his pen.

You grew in life as a writer, a perfect model for those dreams that were crushed under the never-ending pressure IIT-IIM, something that you mentioned in ‘Five Point Someone’, and was later brought on our screens in a more empathetic manner in ‘3 Idiots’. You won an IIFA for ‘Kai Po Che!’, penned another blockbuster starring Salman Khan, ‘Kick’, and no matter how nonsensical it may have been, it was still a mighty success, adding one more feather to your cap. With ‘2 States’, you echoed the sentiments of couples struggling for a love marriage across the country, due to cultural and religious differences, and ‘Half Girlfriend’ was yet another icing on the cake. You were a perfect youth icon, one of the masses, understanding their heart like no one else.

Penning down masala-entertainers, outcome of a genre exclusively invented by and for Bollywood, is no easy feat, and not a bad thing either. After all, it is a tough task to chart out a through and through entertainer. But then, when you start applying the same logic in real life, in the form of the tweets that you put forward claiming as your brain-child, on the most sensitive of topics, then it becomes an issue.

On account of the recent issue of cracker-ban in the NCR, you were quick to paint it in a communal colour, asking the honourable Supreme Court to interfere in the religious matters of other communities, as you brought about the decision as an attack on Hindus. You conveniently forgot *coughs* triple talaq *coughs* verdict, and also how people like you lauded the SC for bringing about a change, asking all to respect the supreme law authority in the country. You talk of selective decision, how about selective appreciation and observation on decisions of the law and reports of the media, on your part?

Our world is burdening under the pressure of inhuman atrocities that we put it through every single day. NCR and Delhi alone has become a hub of smoke that envelopes it every day, for every person of every community. It is a noted fact that the day post Diwali has been marked by nil visibility and various lung-ailments attacking people across ages. Had this been a religious matter, the SC would have implemented the same across the nation, and just for the time of Diwali. However, they are doing it only for a particular state, to prevent it from deteriorating even further.

Also, to emphasise the point further, since you are so engrossed in kicking out logic while creating perceptions, I don’t recollect any of the ‘other’ religions celebrating a festival in a manner that is deteriorating to the environment. You talk of religion; wasn’t Diwali the ‘festival of lights’? When did it become a festival of pomp and show with the loudest and smokiest of bombs? Your whiny complaints on not being fair with one religion does not come out as something that should come from the writer of a movie like ‘Kai Po Che!’, which beautifully charted out religious harmony amongst the murkiest lanes of riots and hatred. What caused the change of heart, CB?

Chetan, writers, be of screen or book, irrespective of the audience they cater to, are known to be intellectuals who speak less, but say the right thing when they do. And even if they are not right, they are humble enough to acknowledge the same. You may have penned a ‘Half Girlfriend’, but don’t apply ‘half knowledge’ to come up with ‘half baked’ conclusions. You have followers, please comment sensibly.

Save yourself, Chetan. It does not do well to become a Rahul Gandhi in the world of literature and cinema, both of which influence respective strata and have the power to change the mindset of many.

As Boyzone said in their song “It’s only words, and words are all I have, to take your heart away”. Yes, that’s the power of words. Choose them carefully.

Sincerely,
A used-to-be fan

Kadambari Srivastava

Grammar Nazi, word weaver, dreamer, bibliophile, technophile, caffeine addict, foodie, shuttling shopaholic! Mash it in a Bollywood recipe and voila! Pushpa, you’ve got her!