Book Review
Show Business
- by Shashi Tharoor

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Aah Bollywood… what would India be without it?

Shashi Tharoor’s ‘Show Business’ is a funny, satirical look at the Hindi film industry through the eyes of one of its mega stars, Ashok Banjara (Note his initials! In fact several parts of the book seem very close to the life of our more famous AB)

When the novel begins AB is in a coma after an accident during a film shooting. His life is unraveled before us through an engaging interplay of reflections and nostalgic monologues that his “co-stars” (his frustrated wife, an angry colleague, his good-hearted politician father and would-be politician brother, and his self-absorbed mistress) have as well as actual (abridged) film scripts.

Dicing and splicing monologues, synopses of movies (these are especially hilarious... imagine transliterations of Hindi film songs in English!), and excerpts from Bollywood's sharp-clawed gossip columnist, the Cheetah, Shashi Tharoor relates the rise and fall of the handsome Ashok Banjara - eldest son of a prominent politician, a connection that helps him get his first role. Ashok's rise to megastardom in the Hindi movie industry is swift. The quintessential movie star, Ashok lives as if life were a movie starring him, along with a supporting cast of beautiful women and servile men. He marries his costar but cheats on her several times; becomes a Member of Parliament - just another starring role, he assumes - but is framed in a tax-evasion scheme and must resign; in disgrace, he grasps at straws and accepts the lead in a low-budget movie, which leads to his terrible accident.

All in all, a very easy and enjoyable book, especially because of its Bollywood theme.