Audio only
The Longest Kiss
The Life and Times of Devika RaniBy Kishwar DesaiNarrated by Ratnabali BhattacharjeeLength17h 17m
About this audiobook
She was India's first international superstar in the 1930s and 1940s. Astonishingly beautiful, prodigiously talented and a great-grandniece of Rabindranath Tagore, Devika Rani earned rave reviews for her first film, Karma. Shortly afterwards, she married Himansu Rai, and together they set up India's first truly professional studio, Bombay Talkies. Over the next few years, the studio became the launch pad for some of India's best-known talent, including Ashok Kumar, Leela Chitnis and Dilip Kumar.
After Himansu's controversial death in 1940, Devika took over Bombay Talkies. She ran the studio with a steel hand, squashing all rebellion and constantly walking a tightrope when it came to the men around her. Then, one day, she met the handsome and reclusive Svetoslav Roerich, and, just like in a Hindi film, nothing was ever the same again. Devika died as she had lived, in the midst of controversy, and an enigma to most.
In The Longest Kiss, for the first time, through her letters and documents, is pieced together the life that she kept away from the world. The romance and the abuse that characterized her marriage with Himansu, the struggle of being a woman at the helm of a hyper-male domain, the circuitous ways in which cinema found its feet in Bombay, and the soaring happiness and tragedy of a life lived on the edge, always.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 4.1 (237)
Includes Goodreads, Amazon, StoryGraph
GenreOther, Biography and Memoir
Length17 hrs 17 mins
Narrated byRatnabali Bhattacharjee
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateMar 27, 2026
LanguageEnglish
More from Kishwar Desai
Mere ChristianityC. S. Lewis7h 7m4.4 (519.7K)$24 · $0.00
Her Daily BreadKate Wood12h 57m4.6 (153)$33 · $0.00
The Holy Bible - 1 SamuelKing James2h 13m4.8 (1.6K)$3 · $0.00
The American Standard Bible — The Gospel of MatthewMatthew3h 56m4.7 (3K)$2 · $0.00
Bad Fat Black GirlSesali Bowen6h 32m4.7 (2.8K)$24 · $0.00
The King James Audio Bible New Testament CompleteChristopher Glyn20h 2m4.7 (2.6K)$12 · $0.00
Faiths CheckbookCharles Spurgeon12h 44m4.7 (3.2K)$11 · $0.00
Ten Things I Wish You Knew About Your Child's Mental HealthDr. Billy Garvey4h 53m4.7 (2.4K)$20 · $0.00
Designing Terry Pratchett’s DiscworldPaul Kidby3h 52m4.7 (343)$20 · $0.00
The Chosen Book OneAmanda Jenkins, Kristen Hendricks, Dallas Jenkins3h 8m4.6 (4.9K)$10 · $0.00
The Lives of BrianBrian Johnson9h 45m4.6 (3.5K)$29 · $0.00
Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of LukeJ.C. Ryle27h 13m4.7 (536)$18 · $0.00
CrossroadsKaleb Dahlgren7h 56m4.6 (4.9K)$26 · $0.00
Across the RiverKent Babb11h 40m4.6 (927)$29 · $0.00
Brain Training for RidersAndrea Monsarrat Waldo5h 56m4.7 (550)$19 · $0.00
My Effin' LifeGeddy Lee17h 11m4.6 (13.1K)$40 · $0.00
Kings and PawnsHoward Bryant10h 9m4.6 (678)$29 · $0.00
The Elementia Chronicles #2: The New OrderSean Fay Wolfe11h 17m4.6 (841)$29 · $0.00
The ActsLuke2h 55m4.6 (19.7K)$12 · $0.00
New Testament - Easy NavigationWorld English Bible19h 35m4.6 (1.3K)$1.30 · $0.00
How to Test Negative for StupidJohn Kennedy8h 13m4.7 (9.7K)$28 · $0.00
Bad Fat Black GirlSesali Bowen6h 32m4.7 (2.8K)$24 · $0.00
Send MeMarty Skovlund, Joe Kent8h 10m4.7 (1.6K)$26 · $0.00
John Muir: The Story of My Boyhood and Youth & Letters to a Friend (Annotated)John Muir10h 13m4.7 (1.1K)$0.99 · $0.00
Invisible StormJason Kander6h 48m4.7 (3.2K)$24 · $0.00
Forever BoyKate Swenson9h 27m4.7 (5K)$29 · $0.00
You Are Worth ItKyle Carpenter, Don Yaeger8h 53m4.7 (4.8K)$29 · $0.00
The Happiest Man on EarthEddie Jaku3h 48m4.6 (178K)$7 · $0.00
MotherlandJulia Ioffe17h 52m4.7 (2.5K)$40 · $0.00
Evidence Not SeenDarlene Deibler Rose11h 11m4.6 (11.9K)$29 · $0.00
Where Cowards Go to DieBenjamin Sledge8h 42m4.7 (351)$20 · $0.00
Will You Love Me?Cathy Glass9h 5m4.6 (9.3K)$29 · $0.00
Designing Terry Pratchett’s DiscworldPaul Kidby3h 52m4.7 (343)$20 · $0.00
HostageEli Sharabi5h 25m4.6 (10.8K)$24 · $0.00
Finding MeViola Davis9h 15m4.6 (256.4K)$29 · $0.00
The Dangerous Truth about Today’s MarijuanaLaura Stack CSP, MBA9h 57m4.7 (385)$20 · $0.00
Birdie & HarlowTaylor Wolfe7h 50m4.6 (6.5K)$26 · $0.00
The Lives of BrianBrian Johnson9h 45m4.6 (3.5K)$29 · $0.00
I Am The StormJanice Dean9h4.6 (1.5K)$8 · $0.00
Black History CollectionFrederick Douglass, Harriet Ann Jacobs, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois27h 9m4.6 (2.6K)$18 · $0.00
You may also like
Lives of the ScientistsKathleen Krull2h 7m4.1 (461)$15
Hegel: The Science of LogicGeorg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel17h 53m4.3 (4.5K)$1.99 · $0.00
Groundwork of the Metaphysics of MoralsImmanuel Kant4h 28m4.0 (28.5K)$1 · $0.00
Marie CurieKathleen Krull2h 27m4.2 (270)$15
Bartleby and MeGay Talese8h 45m4.1 (593)$29 · $0.00
I'll Show Myself OutJessi Klein6h 51m4.0 (18.6K)$24 · $0.00
R.D. BurmanBalaji Vittal, Anirudha Bhattacharjee14h 4m4.3 (512)$33 · $0.00
Tertium Organum: The Third Canon of ThoughtP. D. Ouspensky14h 48m4.3 (688)$0.99 · $0.00
The Radio HourVictoria Purman9h 59m4.3 (1.5K)$29 · $0.00
The Mystique of Enlightenment (Summarized Edition)U. G. Krishnamurti3h 11m4.4 (349)$2
QuicksandNella Larsen5h 14m3.8 (12.1K)$14 · $0.00
Dead White GuysMatt Burriesci9h 11m4.1 (271)$14 · $0.00
Old in Art SchoolNell Painter11h3.7 (3.2K)$23
The Tenant of Wildfell HallAnne Brontë18h 24m4.2 (222K)$2.30
Quicksand (Annotated)Nella Larsen6h 3m4.2 (463)$1.99 · $0.00
Heavy TalesJon Zazula7h 13m3.8 (230)$17
John Neff on InvestingJohn Neff9h 26m3.9 (448)$20 · $0.00
In a League of Her OwnKaia Alderson9h 54m3.9 (817)$29 · $0.00
Gustav KlimtJane Rogoyska, Patrick Bade2h 45m4.3 (196)$16 · $0.00
Spinoza (Annotated)Berthold Auerbach12h 2m$2 · $0.00