Aatish Taseer's views are correct. In terms of English literature, Chetan Bhagat's books are not exactly award winning literature. It is good for timepass just like masala movies.
To project it as world-class literature will make India the laughing stock of the literary world.
Re: Aatish is accurate in his views
by Varadarajan Ravindran on Feb 14, 2015 06:44 AM
Many American and Britis novels are also below par. It does not mean that they have to be denigrated by the likes of Aatish Taseer even if they are popular among the public.
Re: Aatish is accurate in his views
by simon seth on Feb 15, 2015 05:22 PM
An honest appraisal of current literary standard of Indo English literature. And yes,Mr bhag.t is hardly world class. He is right.
WRT the Chetan Bhagat comment - This is the first time a product-maker (a writer producing a book) is cribbing that his audience is not mature enough for his product instead of making a product the audience might appreciate! Aatish Taseer - dude, that India likes Bhagat is not necessarily a comment on its literacy level. It could also be a comment on its taste! Maybe they understand your writing but just don't like it :)
People who read Chetan Bhagat include both serious and the occasional reader. The former reads him for timepass, while the latter does not care whether it is good lit. or not. Either way, nobody reads Chetan Bhagat thinking it is great literature.
he says "IN ENGLISH" india is a semi literate country - which means it is not so in its native languages which the great majority of the people use. also his point that today's Chinese literature is being read outside like Russian literature in the past and this is not so with bhagat misses the mark. today people want to read about china because of the way china is growing and is in conflict with the west - like the way islam is in conflict with the west. similar with Russia in the past. but such interest is not there in india. if india were news worthy then bhagat too would be read outside india.
Re: misinterpreted
by Nandakumar Chandran on Feb 08, 2015 07:28 AM
and btw the movie '3 idiots' inspired from bhagat's book, has probably been seen by more people outside india, than the number of people who have read Chinese authors whom the author refers. that counts - ignoring literary snootiness.
If his books are getting sold, it is not chetans mistake, no doubt he is an overrated chap and write mediocre books which get transalated into mediocre movies. I'm surprised that a IIT n IIM alumnus is friends with idiots like - ekta kapoor, arbaz khan etc, his friend circle shows this mans taste in general. He was in arguement with raju hirani, so this also shows that may be he likes to be with mediocre people like ekta kapoor bcos then he feels great amongst them and has complex with intelligent humans...
" Chetan Bhagat doesn't find an audience because no one outside India can read him." The same thing was said about Sanskrit literature by the British when they started ruling India!
Re: Chetan Bhagat
by abhimanyu on Feb 13, 2015 03:23 PM
Sanskrit epics were well-read by the european indophiles of that time. However to say that Chetans books are in the same league as the sanskrit epics is going too much.
People who buy his books are mostly youngsters who never read a book before and they don't read this one either. Just as a token of fancy ppl buy his books to act as if they read.
All his hype is because of the movies and this guy is not worth a word.
There is no definition of a great literature. You may have a taste of something and will claim that to be great. However I may not be in agreement with you. Same is the case here. "Highly Literate" people may want to write in a language that requires dictionary and patience to understand but it doesn't gels well with the Audience of today that wants clear and concise language.
Re: Definition of a great literature
by Venu Gopalan on Feb 06, 2015 05:48 PM
Great Literature is any literature that will expand the readers mental horizons. All the classics have this quality.
