In My Opinion

You Have No Idea by _RulerOfHearts_

Full title: | You Have No Idea | by _RulerOfHearts_
Source: 🅱🅾🅱🅰 🅶🆁🅰🅽🅳 🅰🆆🅰🆁🅳 by iloveboba1stacct
Category: Best Male Lead (Anirban Chatterjee)
Mature: Y (strong profanity)
Status: Ongoing
English usage: Indian
Special note (rubric): The rubric provided for this award differed from what I normally use. I pasted it below.
Special note (judging): I had 2 books from this category, and another judge (RahafEliwa) had 8 books.
Special note (number of chapters read): Judges were required to read 5-10 chapters of each book. I read 10 chapters of this book and 5 chapters of the other book I judged. The reason for that is this book has 49 chapters, each taking approximately 5-6 minutes to read, and although the author splits the POV between the male and female protagonists, it's heavily weighted towards the female protagonist. Chapters will go by without the male protagonist even showing up. The other book only has 17 chapters, each taking approximately 10 minutes to read, and the author splits the POV pretty evenly between the male and female protagonists. So, I decided reading another 5 chapters was only fair for this book, given differences in chapter length and book length, and also to give more opportunity for more scenes from the male protagonist's POV and more opportunity for interaction with the female protagonist.
Result: 43/50 for Anirban Chatterjee

Clicking the "External Link" button below the "Continue to next part" button will take you straight to the book.

*****

Rubric:
- Depth and complexity: 10
- Development and growth throughout the story: 10
- Believability and relatability of emotions: 10
- Impact on the overall narrative: 5
- Memorable traits or qualities: 5
- Judge's opinion: 10
Total: 50

*****

Male Lead: Anirban Chatterjee
Total: 43/50

Depth and complexity: 8/10
This guy. He comes off as an arrogant jerk, annoyingly handsome and very aware of it, but there's more to him than that. I could only see glimpses through the first 10 chapters, since they're mostly from Saudamini's POV and he's not even in every chapter, but he isn't just a pretty face. His persistence in pursuing her shows that he's not too proud to apologize, and then there's the scene where he stood up to her brother-in-law. That was where he stole my heart. If he didn't care about her, he wouldn't care that her brother-in-law was tearing her apart, but he did care, and he wouldn't let it continue. And then he's right back to being an arrogant, handsome jerk. I can see why she's so frustrated with him. How do you get a guy like that out of your head?

Development and growth throughout the story: 5/10
Like I said, I can only see glimpses of this over the first 10 chapters. I'm sure more growth happens later, but since he's only an occasional side character at first, any growth is hard to see. Something must have changed in him before the story started, because the lady's man is suddenly interested in pursuing and marrying one woman, and after her rude rejection, he's still willing to forget his pride and take her back. I can't say that the scene with her brother-in-law is growth, though, because I get the feeling he doesn't put much stock in traditional viewpoints. And in the last scene in chapter 10, when he's putting the moves on her - well, it's hot, but the fact that he's so good at it only proves what a playboy he's been before, and he brings up other women like it's nothing. So, not the most growth at this point, but I'm sure it's coming.

Believability and relatability of emotions: 10/10
This is really easy to believe. He grew up good-looking and rich, so of course he'd become an arrogant playboy. The couple's banter and the way he flirts and teases her into responding to him are really natural. When she plays him and lures him in just to reject him, his confusion and frustration are really natural, too.

Impact on the overall narrative: 5/5
Well, there isn't much of a story without him, is there? We already know that he's not Saudamini's first proposal since she became a widow, but none of the others were good enough to start a story.

Memorable traits or qualities: 5/5
There are a lot of arrogant, handsome male protagonists out there. There aren't a lot who will stand up for a woman who purposely rejected them and refuse to let her get verbally abused. That scene with the brother-in-law - that did it for me. Not just him intervening. The way he insisted her brother-in-law had to address him directly, not address him through her in an abusive phone chain. He liked how feisty she was, and he didn't like to see her suddenly submissive and cowering in front of her brother-in-law. That speaks to his character and proves that he's more than just a pretty boy.

Judge's opinion: 10/10
All the above. And his interactions with her are perfect. The banter is amazing. They go together, and I think marrying him is going to help her get past the trauma of losing her first husband, however that happened - and I'm sure you'll enlighten us.