Does Sudeep Nagarkar strike gold with Sorry You're Not My Type?

Sorry You’re Not My Type is like the rebound affair you have after a passionate relationship didn’t work out. You neither love, nor do you hate it, it’s quickly over and it leaves you with something between a beatific smile and a slight grimace.

The Characters

Vikrant, Yuvi and Anamika are the life of the book. They have their own band, eponymously called VAYU – V for Vikrant, A for Anamika, Y for Yuvi and the U is for Us. The band is their love and their life. The intra-relationships in the band are clearly highlighted and make up for most of the matter of the book. Apart from music, the three have starkly different personas that complement each other, MOST of the time. Other supporting characters are Yuvi’s girlfriend – Kashish, Anamika’s boyfriend – Anurag and his ex Sanaya.

The characterization of each of them is detailed and they grow on you.

The story is recited by Aditya who comes to meet his best friend and has an unforeseen tryst with the intense Vikrant.

The Setting

The book is set in bustling capital of the country, Delhi. Vikrant, Anamika and Yuvi are all students of the Rajhans College. We move from swanky restaurants like Mia Bella to the college canteen, appositely named Lover’s Point. The Lodha Gardens provide a welcoming shade for clandestine meetings and the DU campus is a glamorous stage for the concerts by VAYU and other college festivals. Many poignant moments also take place in the Delhi Metro, where Vikrant meets his lady love for the first time.

The Story

Author: Sudeep Nagarkar
Publisher: Random House
Year: 2014
ISBN: 9788184004908
[rating : 3.5/5] Read book reviews from other readers

Vikrant is a determined perfectionist. Determined to make his music popular, determined to get recognition for the band and determined in love. Yuvi is a total go-getter, a free bird who lives life to his own terms, and a very involved and adoring boyfriend. Anamika is best described as a wild girl, with a twist. Adorned with tattoos but with a beautiful heart and loving disposition, she is the one who grabs eyeballs. The three friends have an easy camaraderie and with new friends and peers come new relationships. Anamika dates Anurag, the alpha male of the college: the head of the student council who drives an Audi. Yuvi and Kashish are in a stable relationship and love each other very much. Vikrant is head over heels in love with his ‘the one’ – a girl he saw in the Metro who captured his heart with just a doe-eyed look. As the musical triumvirate go along their lives, only one saying reiterates itself in their respective lives – “Change is the only constant.”

Anamika’s relationship with Anurag sours and Vikrant’s relationship starts. Due to some untoward circumstances, their final show is a bust and this lowers everybody’s morale and escalates tensions between the fiery Anamika and the now-belligerent Yuvi. They all take a trip together to mend broken fences and broken hearts. The trip that changes the course of all their lives and all future decisions they would take.

Opinion

This book is strictly OK. The pace in the initial chapters is tedious, as love and its nuances express itself. Since the book was slated for a Valentine’s 2014 release, nothing less is expected. But this time, the author seems to have gone overboard, with characters falling in love with each other as would have been only in a Bollywood movie. It all seems a bit unreal. The writing seems oversimplified and the characters, too much in love.

But, the passion for the music that the three protagonists share is appreciated and applauded.

This book is essentially a travel read, with lucid language and a moderately engaging story. Read it as a light read a utopian love story.

For all you Sudeep Nagarkar fans, here is our interview with him.