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One night at the Call Center Reviewed!

One Night at a Call Center (ONCC) is the second offering by the now insanely popular fiction author Mr. Chetan Bhagat after his hugely successful debut with ‘Five Point Someone’. After dabbling with a story about his days at the IIT in his first book, Bhagat now takes a stab at the recently booming BPO industry of India, though he uses it as only a backdrop for the overall story. If you have read Five Point Someone, you might relate to the way Bhagat narrates his stories – a very simple and straightforward manner, more on the lines of a Bollywood movie. Bhagat makes no changes to his storytelling ways with ONCC either. He keeps it simple and straightforward. In typical Bollywood style, the book starts out with a conversation between two strangers on a train, with one of the strangers narrating the story going into flashback!

The story is about a team of call center workers and their daily (nightly I must say) lives at the call center. Bhagat has managed to intertwine their experiences at their job with the characters’ personal battles with great finesse. Most of the story builds up to the happenings of one eventful night at the call center. Hence the name ONCC. I must say Bhagat provides great insights into the Call Center industry in general. This must have taken quite a bit of research on Bhagat’s part I’m sure. It is this wonderful power of observation of Bhagat’s and the great ability with which he creates fiction out of it is what keeps the reader going. The story is quite gripping and keeps you hooked on a macro level with all the masala Bhagat has managed to pour in. However, there are various instances when you feel that Bhagat misses to create the kind of magic that he did with Five Point. Even though Bhagat has tried to create some suspense at the end, the sugary sweet climax leaves a very sweet taste in the mouth. But the story might end up appealing to a majority of readers out there, especially Bollywood buffs. ONCC must serve as a great recipe for a Bollywood script in fact! There are quite a few funny sequences and unexpected twists which make the book an interesting read overall. If you have a weekend to kill, go buy yourself the book. If not, then I’d rather read Five Point Someone again.

Rating : ***
Pic courtesy :http://www.venkatarangan.com

10/18/2008 Update
This book has been made into a movie now (Link) which I happened to see last week. I’m not sure what I must be saying because literally, there are no words to describe the movie. You must be thinking that I’m about to praise the movie to no end. Wish I could. I have no words to say about the ‘pathetic’ity of this flick. Seriously, this must be the worst bollyflick I have seen this year and I have seen a lot of bad ones! Save your money, don’t even go near the theater playing ‘Hello’.