Critically injured, Indian film superstar Ashok Banjara lies suspended between life and death in the intensive care unit of a plush Bombay hospital, watching the final rerun of his life. Visitors come and go, talking, confiding, pleading with him to rise from his coma, but there is no reaction from Banjara. He encounters again all the people he used along the way in his successful film career - his father, Maya, his wife, Pranay, the archetypal cinema villain, Mehnaz Elahi, India's sexiest screen heroine and Banjara's mistress; Ashwin, his devoted younger brother, and many others who had supporting parts in his life. With irrepressible charm and a genius for satire, Tharoor portrays the Indian film world with all its Hollywoodesque glitz and glamour, egos and double standards, as a metaphor for Indian society and no doubt all societies.