Unfinished - Priyanka Chopra

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This book is about Priyanka's journey, from India to US, then becoming Miss World, attaining a big status in Hindi Cinema, and going on to become one of the first South Asians to make a mark in Hollywood. Priyanka has covered not just her professional life, but also her personal struggles, achievements, and losses. The memoir is divided into eleven chapters, each covering an important segment of her life.

There are a lot of mixed reviews for this book, and that's exactly how I feel about it. I admire Priyanka's acting and singing, and a lot of her interviews were motivational and productive. Naturally, I expected something similar from this book, but it was not what I had been hoping for. 

Each of the chapters covered events from her life which are obviously close to her, but some were not significant to me as a reader. for example, she writes a lot about how her parents met and their insta-love before actually coming to her childhood. There were events from her childhood written with great humor, and those were great. But in the first half, she has more than mentioned her extended family and their hand in her bringing up. I appreciate her gratitude for them, but it was pretty boring to read so much about her cousins, uncles, and aunts, when what I was there for was her story. Many readers of this book say that she has put forward her image as a small-town girl and I agree with this. Although she was born in a not-so-well-known place, she spent a crucial time of her growing up in the US and is clearly a modern woman. The second half was more or less the same. Here we have bits about her break into Bollywood and then Hollywood. She wrote about some of her initial experience in the industry and mentioned a few celebrities who helped her when her father was unwell. As an I find the change in style understandable as your writing gets better as you practice, but I think the manuscript would have been better with more editing and precise information. Chopra's personality clearly reflects in her writing, and she has put in bits and pieces that have you crying with laughter. There are quite a lot of moments where I thought there's no way Priyanka did this, but she did. Of course, I found places to be too exaggerated and boasting, but then again, it's her book. I'd give this a better rating if the beginning were better trimmed, because the way she kept mentioning her many cousins and uncles and aunts bored me to death. I think this bits were unintentionally written in such a way that you wouldn't understand it if you didn't know Priyanka's relations well enough. But in the end, I have to compliment the cover, fonts, and complimentary pictures. This was an okay read. I don't regret picking it up, but it isn't very memorable either. If you are looking for an inspiring book that guides you in your life, I don't think this will help.

Rating- 3.5/5