Audiobooks Narrated by Ratnabali Bhattacharjee

The Longest Kiss: The Life and Times of Devika Rani

"''The Longest Kiss is as much a story of the setting up of Indian cinema as it is the story of the actress who became a studio head...'' - Anjana Basu, Outlook Traveller ''Desai has managed to write a book that will appeal to lovers of both cinematic history and filmi gossip.''- Chintan Girish Modi, Hindustan Times ''Her life is the stuff of films... The star struck as well as film historians will find much to relish in her story.'' - Anjana Basu, Outlook Traveller ''The studio is gone but Desai's book will make that period come alive for you.''- Chintan Girish Modi, Hindustan Times 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."

Kishwar Desai (Author), Ratnabali Bhattacharjee (Narrator)

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LIGHTNING IN A SHOT GLASS

"'Absolutely top-tier Indian contemporary fiction. Empathetic, sharp, funny, authentic and complex. Loved it.' - Samit Basu 'Wickedly funny and whip-smart - the kind of book you'll breeze through with a grin on your face.' - Aditi Mittal 'A vibrant story of friendship, saturated with the exuberance of Mumbai.' - Mahesh Rao Things are not going well for Mumbai flatmates Meera and Aalo. Forty-year-old journalist Meera is convinced she's confronting a mid-life crisis, even as she boards a train to Kandivali to hook up with an impossibly young colleague. Twenty-nine-year-old Aalo-professionally and emotionally adrift-ends up sliding into the DMs of a ravishing (and far-away) war photographer, after embarking upon a mission to date anyone who is not right of centre. Alongside these fledgling infatuations, which seem determined not to remain casual, Meera and Aalo have to navigate the politics at work and manage parents who are as loving as they are xenophobic. If they are able to survive in this labyrinth, it's because they can lean on a chosen family of fiercely loyal girlfriends, and the city of Mumbai, which brings out selves they didn't know they possessed. Original, electrifying and whip-smart, Lightning in a Shot Glass is an ode to romance, a tribute to the magic and mayhem that is Mumbai, and a love letter to all women."

Deepanjana Pal (Author), Ratnabali Bhattacharjee (Narrator)

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Escape from Kabul: A True Story of Escape and Survival

"Five Women. A Crumbling City. A Daring Flight to Freedom. August 2021. The fall of Kabul. Twenty years after they were defeated, the Taliban storms Afghanistan's capital, claiming every piece of land they pass and plunging the city into chaos. For Anjali and four other women, who were all from different parts of the world and worked together at the Anglo-American University of Kabul, this moment marks the beginning of a harrowing journey. Forced into hiding, hunted for their work at the University, and unsure of whom to trust, knowing betrayal is just a whisper away, they are bound by one urgent impetus: to get out alive. What unfolds is an inspiring story of resistance and survival, furtive phone calls, forged documents and midnight dashes through enemy territory-and the relentless courage of women who refuse to be silenced. Searing and utterly gripping, Escape from Kabul is at once an extraordinary first-person account of sisterhood in crisis as well as a meditation on the meaning of freedom, and what it takes to reclaim agency when the world closes in."

Enakshi Sengupta (Author), Ratnabali Bhattacharjee (Narrator)

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