Hi Aditya, 

You can begin by taking a look at the papers attached to this comment.

As for your first question, I do not see why you wouldn't be able to observe any chondrogenic differentiation within the stipulated period. The first link very well mentions the following:

Under the described culture conditions, human MSCs undergo chondrogenic differentiation within 2–3 weeks, producing abundant extracellular matrix composed primarily of cartilage-specific molecules such as type II collagen and aggrecan.

The initial cell aggregates contain type I collagen and no cartilage-specific molecules. Type II collagen is typically detected in the matrix by day 5. By day 14, type II and type X collagen are detected throughout the cell aggregates, except for an outer layer of flattened cells that remains rich in type I collagen. Aggrecan and link protein can also be detected in extracts of the aggregates.

Chondrogenic differentiation can be assessed by toluidine blue staining of pellet sections, whereby cartilaginous extracellular matrix will stain purple (metachromasia) while undifferentiated or fibrous tissue will stain blue. Typically, chondrogenic cultures are harvested at 1-week intervals and, in most cases, the experiments are terminated after 3 weeks. Frequency and timing of aggregate harvest are otherwise determined by the experimental objectives.

Regarding your second question(hypertrophy detection):

You can refer to the second link.

Goodluck!

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3106977/

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2968769/

Thank you for your response. I am wondering whether 2D culture of hBMSC would be suitable for chondrogenic differentiation. 

Of course!

you can certainly use 2D cultures, and either do alcian blue, safranin-O staining, or extract RNA and run some qPCR. Pellet cultures is definately the best method though.

A very thorough explanation is here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26445829