A gentle Chekhovian comedy about a travelling theatre group set in India in the early 1960s. The Buckingham Players try to uphold English theatrical tradition by staging Shakespeare for the general public, boarding schools, and local royalty but are unable to compete with the wildly popular Bollywood film industry. The film traces the developing relationship between the acting troupe’s young ingénue, Lizzie (Felicity Kendal), and Sanju (Shashi Kapoor), a wealthy Indian playboy. But their romance is beset by hindrances, not the least being the jealous machinations of Manjula (Madhur Jaffrey), a fiery film star who is also in love with Sanju.
