Show Business

The casting couch, big egos, glitz and various forms of exploitation are just as much a part of India's film industry as of Hollywood, to judge from this entertaining, occasionally uneven satirical novel. Bombay superstar Ashok Banjara, a government minister's son, is a personable, egotistical cad. He courts a co-star whle his wife is pregnant with triplets, flaunts his affair across the nation and later runs for a seat in the Indian parliament long held by his disapproving father. Tharoor ( The Great Indian Novel ) unreels a tale of multiple betrayals in the alternating voices of the main characters, intercutting extended movie scenes that, while not advancing the plot much, effectively contrast an inane celluloid fantasy land with a society burdened with economic disparities and caste conflicts. Although the parallels he draws between Bombay's tinseltown and Indian politics and religion are a bit strained, Tharoor has a flair for creating vivid characters, such as a cranky gossip columnist, an embittered friend betrayed by Ashok, and the hero, who meets a fiery fate. (June)