From Entrepreneurial Dreams to Social Conflict: A Comparative Study of Chetan Bhagat’s The 3 Mistakes of My Life and Abhishek Kapoor’s Kai Po Che!

Abstract

Chetan Bhagat’s The 3 Mistakes of My Life (2008) and Abhishek Kapoor’s film adaptation Kai Po Che! (2013) present the aspirations, friendships, conflicts, and vulnerabilities of young people in contemporary India. Set primarily in Ahmedabad, the novel follows Govind, Ishaan, and Omi as they attempt to establish a cricket business while negotiating friendship, love, entrepreneurship, religion, family expectations, natural disaster, and communal violence. The film transforms this narrative into a visual account of friendship and ambition while adapting the novel's major events for the cinematic medium. This paper offers a comparative study of the novel and film, focusing on five major areas: youth aspiration and entrepreneurship, friendship and personal relationships, cricket and social identity, religious conflict and communal violence, and the transformation of narrative into cinema. The study argues that both texts portray young Indians as a generation caught between dreams of economic independence and the social and political realities surrounding them. While Bhagat's novel provides an extended interior and narrative account of the characters, Kapoor's film emphasises visual storytelling, friendship, emotional intensity, and collective experience. The adaptation demonstrates how literary narratives are reshaped when transferred from page to screen.