Sunday 27 April 2014

' 2 STATES'- THE BOOK AND FILM REVIEW



TITLE:  2 STATES
AUTHOR: CHETAN BHAGAT
SERIES: STANDALONE
RATING: ★★★
 
SUMMARY:

Love marriages around the world are simple:
Boy loves girl. Girl loves boy.
They get married.
In India, there are a few more steps:
Boy loves Girl. Girl loves Boy.
Girl’s family has to love boy. Boy’s family has to love girl.
Girl’s Family has to love Boy’s Family. Boy’s family has to love girl’s family.
Girl and Boy still love each other. They get married.
Welcome to 2 States, a story about Krish and Ananya. They are from two different states of India, deeply in love and want to get married. Of course, their parents don’t agree. To convert their love story into a love marriage, the couple have a tough battle in front of them. For it is easy to fight and rebel, but it is much harder to convince. Will they make it?

REVIEW:                           
The movie is out, so what better time to review both the movie and the book together.
So basically ‘2 State’ is astounding journey from the Mess to the Buffet dinner..errr excuse my bad sense of humor but jokes apart it is the story of Ananya and Krish. Both of them are from two different states, Ananya from Chennai and Krish from Delhi.

This may trigger CHENNAI EXPRESS film script to you with the north Indian boy and tamilian girl, but trust me its nothing like that and moreover ‘2 states book ‘was published long back even before Chennai express released.

We have two main characters and their respective parents.
1. Krish- a very studious, brilliant and cool Punjabi guy
2. Ananya – a spunky , big- mouthed Tamilian girl

Krish meets Ananya for the first time in IIM  mess where Ananya was busy fighting over the unhygienic food and he was instantly awestricken by this gorgeous lady and then the predictable happens – friendship then love.

They fall in love and that’s not the end but the beginning of a bigger journey- the journey to their marriage.

The first phase is when they have lot of fun and love and sparks fly until of course their parents meet each other at the convocation day and YES that day sparks do fly but sparks of love? Among Tamilian’s and Punjabi parents…hmm (read the book and you’d know) no offense but the humor is just fantastic.

This is when the second phase of the story comes, where Krish (spoiler alert) takes a job placement in Chennai to convince his Tamilian in-laws for their marriage.

Then the third phase where Ananya goes to Delhi to convince her in-laws for their marriage and all this was not enough that now even both of their parents must approve each other and decide to meet.

The last phase is marriage after all.

Their journey had lots of ups and downs but their patience is commendable and its really so nice to read a book where parents are given an equal importance because their approval and blessings are so important and always will be important.

Also we come to know about two different cultures and their habits and nature. As for me I was born in Chennai but I know only one word..ILLE (btw did I spell it correct)

India being a country where there exist so many cultures and religions still face cases where cross culture marriages are not allowed and prohibited. As it is said in the book that when we are accepting a family of different culture we are adding more value to our existing ones.

I think diversity is so important and it really opens up your mind and stops it from being narrow minded. I am a Bengali born in Chennai and brought up in Nagaland and currently living in Kolkata and my dad is Bengali and mum Punjabi and even though their cultures are so different from each other I get to enjoy both of them I can eat and enjoy rice and fish and also parantha and butter chicken.

We are Indians first and of course culture is so important we should all be rooted to it but it should not be the basis of discrimination.

I really loved the social issue brought up by this book and the love between Krish and Ananya was good too but nothing so special that I haven’t seen in Bollywood films or read about.

♥♥♥
“Sometimes in your life you just meet someone or hear something that nudges you on the right path. And that becomes the best advice. It could just be a bit of commonsense said in a way that resonates with something in you. It's nothing new, but because it connects with you it holds meaning for you.”

'2 STATES'- THE MOVIE

 
PRODUCER: Karan Johar and Sajid Nadiadwala 
CAST-


 Courtesy : Wikipedia

The movie was average for me. I expected more from the film since the story had a typical Bollywood masala film theme.

Those of who didn’t read the book would love it but for me I liked the book better .
Those of you who want to read the book , i have given a link below and there is a nice offer going on so do check it out.

The songs were not up to the mark the composers being Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, the music should have been better.

The film had some changes of course like the P.C.O was omitted and mobiles were used. But I think the film could have had more changes like there was no need to show the story in flash backs it seemed forced and there was no need of it.

Most of the dialogue were just taken out of the book and on to the film there was no extra effort for some added dialogues or scenes which made the the movie really slow paced.

Alia Bhat and Arjun Kapoor acted well which made up for some of the flaws. Their pair looks wonderful and very natural on screen.
It is a one time watch enjoyable but could have been better.