"A witty, ironic novel in which Indian film - and India itself - is seen from any number of revealing angles....A splendid novel."

- Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post and The International Herald Tribune

"Shashi Tharoor is one of those rare writers who felicitously combines gentle satire with an urgent concern for society's ills. Another eloquent - and entertaining - commentary on contemporary India."

- Kirkus Reviews

"Hugely entertaining... Shashi Tharoor educates us while wielding a needle-sharp satirical rapier....A delightful portrait of India's popular silver screen... Fresh, witty and highly accessible... a rollicking, first-rate novel."

- The Seattle Times/ The Seattle Post-Intelligencer

"An immensely clever, wickedly satirical novel ... [told] with tremendous verve. A satire of Swiftian aspirations about the grand illusion of story and history."

- Srinivas Krishna, The Toronto Globe & Mail

"Tharoor has a terrific ear... His wit is peppery and alert.... This highly coloured, entertaining, faintly monstrous book takes its risks with panache and triumphs spectacularly."

- Candia McWilliam, The Independent on Sunday, London

"A wacky, satirical tale of hits and misses in the worlds of politics and cinema..., engagingly presented by Shashi Tharoor. Through a montage of shooting scripts, narrative and monologues, he invents a fictional world that is a metaphor for deeper concerns."

- Emily Mitchell, Time

"Show Business is Shashi Tharoor's witty connection between the world of filmmaking and of politics: success in either, he says, involves the finding of effective ways of duping the masses. Except that Bollywood business also makes them laugh."

- Prita Maitra, Sunday, Calcutta

"Tharoor obviously knows Bollywood and its zany habits well. Much of what he writes is funny.... But with all its comic aspects, Show Business is a serious book.... Tharoor achieves just the right combination of cynicism and sorrow; moreover, he leaves the reader with something to think about, a notable accomplishment in itself."

- The Far Eastern Economic Review, Hong Kong

"In Show Business, Shashi Tharoor successfully captures the corrupt milieu of contemporary India..., satirizing it mercilessly.... Shashi Tharoor is a deft narrator who very cleverly weaves his story, interspersing it with film gossip columns and Hindi film songs.... Show Business is not just an entertaining novel. It portrays the social, political and cultural realities of India [with] insight."

- The Earth Times, New York

"Tharoor allows the complexity of India's social fabric - economic realities, the political exigencies of an enormous entrenched system built equally of corruption and necessity - to arrange itself around [his protagonist].... The overarching drama concerns nothing less than free will, and Tharoor handles the Big Topic - the role of dharma, the belief in predestination that he suggests might also be a cosmic cop-out - without crushing his fragile characters.... Tharoor asks whether a society that has such deep affection for fantasy will not ultimately suffer for it; he also makes you eager to find out what happens in the end....Arriving at its apex of irony is one of the book's great joys. Even as it hurts. As in the larger-than-life movies it both lampoons and celebrates, pain and pleasure mix until the final fade."

- Melissa Pierson, The Village Voice, New York

"A splendid satirical view of India through the ails of Bollywood."

- The Reader's Catalog

"Funny and sometimes moving".

- The Times Literary Supplement, London

"Shashi Tharoor's clever book ... is a withering satire on Bombay's film industry... raised to a new and more universal pitch by showing what is common between films and politics.... Tharoor undoubtedly has some of Molière's comic gift; he also has a profound understanding of human falsity and the incongruities that constitute life.... Show Business has in it the genesis of The Great Indian Movie."

- Saros Cowasjee, The Toronto Star

"A fast, fresh and funny read."

- Arena, London

"A writer of top class talent."

- India Today

"A multilayered work which can be read on many levels. While many readers may read it just as an entertaining story, there are deeper meanings embedded in this satirical work about India's social and political reality."

- India West

"Shashi Tharoor's involvement with the political culture of our country filters into his novel. For its title is a metaphor for both cinema and politics....The novel abounds with short and pithy remarks abou