The Zoya Factor by Anuja Chauhan
Release: April 21st 2015 (first published 2008)
Format: Paperback
Publisher: HarperCollins
Source: Amazon
Zoya Factor Synopsis:
When the younger players in India’s cricket team find out that advertising executive Zoya Singh Solanki was born at the very moment India won the World Cup back in 1983, they are intrigued. When having breakfast with her is followed by victories on the field, they are impressed. And when not eating with her results in defeat, they decide she’s a lucky charm. The nation goes a step further. Amazed at the ragtag team’s sudden spurt of victories, it declares her a Goddess.
So when the eccentric IBCC president and his mesmeric, always-exquisitely-attired Swamiji invite Zoya to accompany the team to the tenth ICC World Cup, she has no choice but to agree. Pursued by international cricket boards on the one hand, wooed by Cola majors on the other, Zoya struggles to stay grounded in the thick of the world cup action. And it doesn’t help that she keeps clashing with the erratically brilliant new skipper who tells her flatly that he doesn’t believe in luck…
Review:
I recently picked up this book on a friend’s recommendation. I honestly did not expect this book to be good when I started reading it. The style of writing seemed to be very juvenile and contained mostly ‘Hinglish’ dialogues. However, the plot was so quirky and unique that it kept me engrossed and made me like it a lot!
What’s fun about “The Zoya Factor” is that it brilliantly blends the intensity of cricket with romance of the protagonists. The author has written the cricket parts in a captivating manner that keeps you engrossed even if you aren’t a fan. The author doesn’t focus importance of one over the other. This is a welcome change from reading your usual melodrama soapy stories. Hence, this book is not just a ‘romance’ novel, but has something for everyone to enjoy.
The author’s strengths lies in her plot, character development and the snarky repertoire of the dialogue. She has a talent for keeping the readers glued to the book and had me laughing out loud during the funny moments, to nearly throwing the book during the annoying moments. She has done a wonderful job for a debut novel, as there is never a boring moment in any page. While the book ended the way I thought it would, I admit there were times where I kept guessing what Zoya would do next.
Even though I found most of the characters to be likable, my only problem with the book was Zoya’s personality. During the latter part, Zoya comes off as an emotionally, confused gullible clown with low self-esteem. She reacts to situations before even thinking it through. She makes really dumb decisions and falls into ridiculous situations based on her mood-swings. We can sum up the second half as “I love Nikhil”, “I hate Nikhil”, “I love Nikhil”, every other page. Perhaps this was done for more sub plots, but I kept rolling my eyes on the situations she got into.
Most of the Indian authors pen their stories in the hopes of turning it into a Bollywood movie someday. “The Zoya Factor” is no different and has all the ingredients to turn it into a perfect Bollywood film. The main characters meet through quirky circumstances and fall in love during the first half, and go through various turmoil in the second half testing their romance. The added advantage over such clichéd movies is the gripping sports aspect that gives it a nice touch.
Overall, this was a fun, breezy read and I am interested on how the movie adaptation turns out.
