The Longest Kiss - Life and Times of Devika Rani by Kishwar Desai

Just finished reading this long busy read by Desai that shone light on the times of one of India's most powerful women of the time - Devika Rani. Book takes you through a journey of a girls life, coming from the Tagore Family, living in Europe, socializing, smoking, drinking, acting, marrying the Casanova and Film star Himanshu Rai, starting Bombay Talkies (BT) with him, his conspicuous death, her becoming the head of BT inspite of warring factions and ousting Ashok Kumar (Leading actor of Bollywood) and others who opposed her, wielding an iron hand at BT and finally settling down with a Russian in Bangalore, leaving all this behind to become an art connoisseur and home maker.

This book is a set of intrigues. Tales that make you go through the 450 pages without a stop.

Detailed Summary:

Family

She belonged to the family of Tagores and with a family of well read, well travelled intellectuals, she was educated partly in India and partly in England. Her father was a Chief Medical Doctor of Madras and a staunch supporter of Devika's strong willed and somewhat of a rebellious character. 

Birth and Education

Born in 1908, Devika and her siblings were all educated abroad inspite of financial hardships faced by her father. It is intriguing to read tales of her constant movement across Europe in the 1920s. To imagine the emancipation she enjoyed not only as an individual but as a woman a 100 years back makes for a riveting read. She is in stark contrast to what our history books have shown and demonstrated for so long. She most certainly is an exception to the times she lived in - She was gorgeously beautiful and had many suitors in London's social circle. 

Life in London & Himanshu Rai

After her movement to London, she stayed with Niranjan Pal (son of a famous freedom fighter) and his wife, where she was introduced to a much older Himanshu Rai (actor, producer, director), who was very famous in London's theatre circuit of the time for his immensely handsome looks , smooth talking and acting skills. He has been shown also as somewhat of a ladies man. They eventually marry in 1928.

Difficult times

Book takes you through the difficult times they faced as a couple collecting money for making films but also demonstrates the unique skills of maneouvering success of less than average films. In the era of silent movies, Himanshu and Niranjan made movies mostly for European audience using the exotic character of Indian grandeur and lavishness of Indian Princely kingdoms. This also allowed for foreign actors being browned for acting in these films. However, with advent of talkies, they saw a shift in the way India themed movies were received in Europe and with Reich taking effect in Germany for the late 20s, the team decided to shift base to India in 1930s. 

Return to India

The time upon their return to India with cinematographer and voice engineers from UK and Germany to start Bombay Talkies, India's first professionally run Movie making studio, set up in Malad, has been shown to be full of exhileration and pomp. The excitement around movies at the time and many Parsi investors coming forward to invest in the venture show the forwardness of the times compared to the Freedom fights we have read about in History text books.

Bombay Talkies

Nevertheless times were tough, BT made 3 movies a year and production was a busy affair with Himanshu and Devika also serving as trainers for building a pipeline of performers. Author impresses that these were those times when women from good families did not act in Movies and it was considered to be a profession for dancers and prostitutes. Devika broke the stereotype, much to the horror of her mother and attracting much disdain in the process. She was the first Indian female actor to kiss on screen. Kiss was around 2 minutes long but was made out to be 5 by the audience.

Scandals at Bombay Talkies

In many ways, she was instrumental in driving the artistic character of BT and she along with Himanshu led it successfully until the pressures of work started to affect their life together with episodes of violence wrecking havoc on their marriage and Himanshu becoming volatile and impatient, she was cornered and was in desparate need for support when she found it in a co-actor and she decided to run away with him to Calcutta leaving BT and Himanshu behind. 

Himanshu's Conspicuous Death

This affair was much publicised and even though she returned on Himanshu's request, her image was tarnished by newspapers and those who were against her at BT. Soon after, Himanshu died under conspicuous circumstance in 1940 and world converged to believe she had killed him.

Marriage to the Russian

She rose from the ashes to regain the hold she once had when Himanshu was around and took the reigns of BT in her hands ousting stalwarts like Ashok Kumar from the studio. She ran the studio with grit till 1945, which is when she decided to get married again to the Harvard educated Painter from Russia and give up all she had built with her sweat and determination. She gave up her stake in thr studio and settled down in Bangalore in a quiet and happy married life. 

Reader's thoughts

The book is exquisite in its detailing of Devika's life all spun together on the basis of letters written by the involved characters. To me, it was quite a discovery to see how the influential people of the time travelled up and down London like it was going to Chandigh from Delhi even a 100 years back.