Love, passion, hatred,love making, revenge, tantrums, suspense, heartbreak: The cocktail called best seller demands a mix of all these. Mix it up the right measure and here you have a bestseller. Arvind Parashar has got the mix right for his book Messed up: But All for Love.


Neil a senior executive working with a leading brand name is in jail while the plot begins. We witness his release from the jail to rejoin his boss the next day. He narrates the events that happened in his life that eventually leads to his incarceration and divorce. Like any other happily married couple, Neil and his wife Gauri too had their share of arguments and differences but they successfully dodges the differences kicking the ego and taking the first step to make up by making out. Gauri introduces an overweight Neil to a fitness instructor Srinya whom Gauri eventually hates due to her interference in their life. Despite the knick knacks that tests the depth of the relation, Gauri and Neil goes strong as a couple. They are secured with each other to such extend that they set out for international trips separately with their set of friends. Later, to make the relation stronger, they go for a trip to Cuba. The trip turns out to be a topsy turvy drive in the life of Neil and Gauri, who meets Srinya at Cuba and the can of worms are set free, needless to say, the issue of misunderstandings. There they meets Drishya, the media person and her police officer husband. Back in India, with a snap of time, Neil is accused of molestation of a female as well as abduction of Drishya in two different incidents. This was enough to break the strong bond between the husband and wife. Will Neil and Gauri separate? Could Neil prove himself innocent? What is the role of Drishya in their lives?


The plot is a contemporary fiction in a literal sense. The dialogues and even the narration are brimful of terms that could be seen only in the urban dictionary. The book has definitely targeted the youth, who prefers easy reads. The first person narration is purely vernacular. The character development is moderate. While author has successfully delivered the idiosyncrasies of the characters, the way they look and the dress and other minor details are left to the reader’s imagination. The disclaimer in the beginning about drunk and drive is a responsible attempt from the author but the scenes where the characters drink while they drive could have been avoided. A major message which I think the author tried to convey is that it is pointless of the couples to get separated for trivial issues. The book cites an example about how relations get sour and irreversible with pointless ego and misunderstandings. Without any boring paragraphs on relations, author has conveyed the same. The tendency of the media to blow everything out of proportion is also quipped generously. The application of cliche in the book  is so much that DLF Phase 1 to 5 in Gurgaon has become a part of almost all bestsellers, so is the use of making out scenes. Unless book is an erotica, I don’t find any point in explaining where each character touched the other and so and so.


Overall the book is a feel good metropolitan contemporary fiction with a suspense element.


This review is in return of a free book from the publisher