Two states: Critic

It is a short and sweet book written by Chetan Bhagat. The book is about a Punjabi boy in love with the tamil- Brahmin-Iyer girl and their struggle to convince elders to get married. The hero Krish (Chetan) meets Ananya (Anusha) in IIMA canteen. They will start studying together in Ananya’s dorm and they fall in love. With high grades in IIMA, Krish gets his placement at City bank and Ananya at HLL at the end of their final year.

They plan to tell their parents about the love on the day of convocation. The two families meet with intense resistance to accept the love fostered by the younger ones. There will be plenty of fuss and the parents do not agree. Krish arranges to get his city bank posting at Chennai where Ananya lives. He’ll have tough time getting to know the city and its people. He’ll help with Ananya’s brother first for IIT entrance exams, then with her dad with a power point presentation which will bring him accolades. In one of the Citibank’s concert, he’ll have ananya’s mother sing along with SPB and Hariharan. By this he wins everyone’s heart at Ananya’s home.

Next he gets Ananya to his house to convince his mother. Ananya does a gimmick at Krish’s cousin’s wedding and she is also welcomed at Krish’s house. They think that their parents should get along with each other too and so they go to Goa. Again Krish and Ananya face conflicts with each other’s family members and between themselves. Ananya refuses to love Krish and he gets a nervous breakdown.

He goes to Chennai from Delhi to talk to Ananya but she refuses him. The next day, Krish’s father whom Krish never liked or respected, goes to Ananya’s house and talks to her parents and arranges for the wedding. The wedding will happen in Tamilain style with a lot of compromise from Krish’s family. In the epilogue after a couple of years Ananya delivers twin boys.

Like all the standard books of Chetan Bhagat, this doesn’t have a death scene or even the suicide attempt. When I read the book, I felt it is purely copied from “Abhiyum Naanum” a tamil movie. But long ago when I had watched that movie, I felt it’s the remake of “Father of the bride” movie. Incidentally “Abhiyum naanum” movie is remade in telugu as “Akashamatha” . Now I am wondering who copied from whom…. But two states is claimed to be chetan’s real story.