Advika and the Hollywood Wives

Ramisetti (Dava Shastri’s Last Day) chronicles in this astute outing the whirlwind marriage of an aspiring screenwriter to an older, thrice-divorced Hollywood legend. Advika tends bar at an afterparty for the Oscars, where she hits it off with producer Julian Zelding. Three months later they’re married, and things get weird. First, one of Julian’s ex-wives, actor Evie Lockhart, promises to give Advika $1 million if she divorces Julian. Advika, meanwhile, is still grieving her twin, Anu, who died in an accident two years earlier, and whose cynical views on marriage echo in Advika’s head as she learns more about Julian’s previous wives, including a songwriter named Nova, whose name Julian once cried out during sex, and whose career he tried to control after they were married. As Advika grows increasingly suspicious of an ever-more manipulative Julian, she shoulders disapproval from her meddling if well-meaning parents, who moved back to India after Anu’s death. The author nails the Hollywood milieu and offers an incisive portrait of Julian, a powerful man who feels compelled to control the women in his life. This is a winner. Agent: Andrea Somberg, Harvey Klinger Literary. (Apr.)