New Delhi, March 2 -- For a novel so steeped in old-school ideas about art and friendship, Annie Zaidi's The Comeback is quite sharp when it comes to depicting a decidedly contemporary phenomenon-the passive-aggressive Instagram spiral. When you really, really want one particular person to listen these days, you scream your lungs out in front of millions. I have done it myself and, to paraphrase poet Allen Ginsberg, I have seen the best minds of my generation naked and hysterical in their worship of the online blood-God.

Rising Bollywood star John K, the narrator-protagonist of The Comeback, has just found out that his estranged friend Asghar has returned to their shared first love: theatre. Desperate to get into Asghar's good books and ...