Novels For The Masses

By Bhagyashree Baruah:

With major changes peeping in every nook and corner of people’s lives, one major change that has been noticed is the choice of the young generation as far as novels are concerned. In the current phase, especially in the Indian society, the young people enjoy reading books which are grounded in love, friendship, sex and such other young ideas. Gone are the days when the majority of the people read and enjoyed serious narrations on conventional subjects. It is, however, not to be understood that this is a generalised statement. What one must understand is that now a days people enjoy books like ‘of course I love you…till I find someone better’ and Mills and Boons more than other novels which require deep thinking.

If one goes through the list of bestseller books, books like ‘of course I love you’ tops the list. Why so? May be because these kind of books can easily relate to the lives of the masses; it has love, flirtation, friendship, lust and much more. Moreover, they do not require one to indulge in deep thinking; one can finish such a book in 4-5 hours. Durjoy data, in his books use very easy to understand English which is one more reason that the majority of the people get attracted to reading books written by him. One more praiseworthy thing in Datta’s books are the titles that he gives to his books- ‘She broke up, I didn’t…I just kissed another girl’. His writing can never get one bored throughout the book. Maybe this series of writing interesting books full of love and sex was started by Mills and Boons in their series of books. The romance series that they had started is known all over the world.

However, in India, this trend of writing novels for the mass was started by Chetan Bhagat with his first book called five points someone. Following this he wrote a couple of more books like the three mistakes of my life, two states, and many more. Bhagat’s books revolve around the various problems and mistakes that a young guy faces in his life. His books have a serious note in themselves which makes him a great writer and his books-the bestsellers of their own time.

There are many who criticize such books as they are believed to pollute the minds of the young generation. But if young people enjoy the books and can relate with them, why should one stop them? However it is also true that they should not totally give up reading books and novels which have more substantive plots. These ‘novels for the mass’ are for entertainment, they won’t help one develop a real literary taste. But, it cannot be denied that it is very hard for any writer to beat the attractive quality that these authors and their books possess. They are truly the novels for the mass- the bestsellers made by the people themselves. Whether we personally hate them or support them, it is the choice of the mass that matters.