When Sonia Faleiro set out to report on Bombay's bar dancers, she thought she knew what she would find: downtrodden, voiceless women, the helpless victims of predictable poverty. Instead she meets Leela: nineteen, charismatic and fearlessly outspoken, Leela has been dancing in Bombay's bars since she was thirteen. With her sharp wit and stubborn optimism, she is the best - paid dancer in a bar on the notorious Mira Road. Leela has a 'husband' (who is already married), a few lovers whose names she can't remember, an insufferable mother camping out in her flat, and an adored best friend, Priya - the most beautiful woman she has ever seen. Beautiful Thing is the vivid, intimate portrait of a young woman fleeing abuse and poverty to build a life on her own terms, in a city equally bent on reinventing itself.