Chetan Bhagat's cribs on 3 Idiots

After seeing 3 Idiots and having read the book, this morning's newspapers presented the 1st irritating headlines of the year - both MINT and ET had Chetan Bhagat (CB) groaning over how he has not been credited enough in the movie and in the media, in the runup to the movie.

Spoiler Alerts ahead - People who haven't seen the movie, you may stop reading here...

My not so humble opinion (and I acknowledge it is prejudiced) is that the movie is entertaining due to its screenplay, not the book. It is obviously inspired by 5.someone, but there are enough distinct plot elements which distinguish it from the book.

1. The main twist in the tale is not in the book

2. The girlfriend of the main protagonist is not really expanded upon in the book

3. And the movie is really about Aamir Khan's character while it professes to be about 3 idiots, it is really about how the former is god's gift to mankind

I can rant more, but I think this will do.

Here is my primary disclaimer -> I am taking what ET and MINT have reported as CB's own words. One never knows how much the person in question is misquoted/has his words distorted in the media.

That said, I found it rather amusing that CB is quoting critics agreeing that the movie is about 70% from his book (I would love to know whether the critics have all read the book completely) and that his mother was tearful, ... What will we hear next?! I think CB got a raw deal on his contract here. No two things about it. But he should have hired a good lawyer before signing the deal. And I think the movie makers acted quite petty in putting his name at the end of the credits. That's too bad! However our man is now a publishing phenom, has made enough money and everyone in the country knows (or should know by now) the movie is inspired by his book. I thought he should be smarter and better than to crib in multiple national newspapers on the first day of the year. Why then rant in mass media? Pritish Nandy (as quoted in one of the papers) had an interesting take - he thinks this is a gimmick to drum up publicity for the movie! I think CB may be feeling left out quite literally out of the dirty sums the movie has been raking in, despite his take here. Further, I found it an eerie coincidence that these articles appeared side by side the news items projecting the movie's expected collections to be around Rs. 200 Cr or so.

Sab maaya hai!

We have enough distasteful news to read these days. Too bad the new year started with something like this