One Arranged Murder
Genre:
Crime
fiction
Author: Chetan Bhagat
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
“Love seemed elusive to us, but we had something
else. We had friendship, which in many ways is even more beautiful than love.”
I know I have given a rating of 3 stars. But it’s
more 2.5ish.
Okay. I have this book because my friend gifted it
to me. And he gifted it to me because I asked him to. You have to understand
that I was a huge fan of Chetan Bhagat as a teenager. I had developed a habit
of reading his books ASAP.
Song: Dharala Prabhu Title Track (by Anirudh Ravichander)
Now I am finding it hard to get rid of this habit.
You know it’s unfair how an author starts
disappointing you more and more after you
have fully become his fan. It’s not fair because when you become someone’s fan,
there is this inbuilt loyalty in your adorations for that person’s work. And loyalties
are hard to ditch just like that. Okay, enough with my whining. Let’s jump to
the business.
One Arranged Murder is a story of 2 detectives who
were introduced in the author’s previous book – Keshav and Saurabh. Saurabh is
about to get married. But two weeks before the wedding, on one fine Karva
Chauth night, his fiancé is found dead on the road, as though she fell off the
terrace. When people rush up to the terrace, there is no one but Saurabh. Saurabh
claims he did not kill her. But then, who did? Her family believes she slipped
off the roof and fell. But was it really an accident? Will Saurabh and Keshav
solve this case?
I would say the book was a typical Chetan Bhagat read,
if not for the extra, over-the-top, filmy drama in it. I swear I felt like I
was reading the script of some Hindi Soap. So it felt like I had ordered a
mystery sandwich (Keshav and Saurabh being the bread slices) topped with
various flavors of Drama and comedy sauce, and in the Notes, I had added “Extra
drama”. Why am I explaining it this way? You will know it soon.
The part that I liked about the book was the
mystery. Besides the intruding family drama, there was a crime-solving theme that
was really good. The killer-is-in-the-family is a very intriguing plot. And
that part of the book was taken in perfect suspense and unraveled with amazing
twists. Simple language, easy to read, fast-moving flow, relatable characters,
guy falls for girl, girl likes him back, sex before date, as I said, cliché
Chetan Bhagat’s book. It put a smile on my face sometimes.
The part I did not like was the fact that the number
of times the book made me smile was lesser than the number of times it gave me a
face-palm reaction. 🤦 The comedy lagged humor. What does that mean you ask? You
see a dialogue. You know it is a comedy. You know it was meant to make you
laugh or at least smile. But all you have is 😑😒😣. As I mentioned earlier,
it was like reading a few episodes of a
Hindi serial about a joint family with insurmountable problems. I also felt
like most of the relations lacked the basic emotions. And I felt like there was
an unraised question that needs to be answered. The killer was not suspected and
someone took care that the case was closed forever. But why did the killer want
to reopen the case? No one knows. But the most irritating part was the fact
that Keshav's character was shallow and he kept body-shaming. I don’t know if I
should be mad at Keshav or Chetan Bhagat. But most of his jokes revolved around
his friend who was obese and probably had an eating disorder. He described his
friend and his fiancé badly and mentally made some comment every single time
his friend had food, which was basically once every 2 pages. Maybe if it was
occasional, it would have been funny. But no. Me, being a plus-sized person who
stress-eats, hated Keshav’s guts. And the author gave just one justification at
the beginning of the book, like a disclaimer, that Keshav does not have a
likable character. Face-palm much?!
And this has just left me thinking, was my craze
for Chetan Bhagat just a lie? Did I like his books only because I was a shallow
teenager? Will I hate those books if I read them now? I do not want to know.
On the whole, One Arranged Murder is a cocktail of
mystery and comedy that will entertain you. Pick it up if you are a fan of solving mysteries.
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