Devika Rani: The Longest Kiss
Kishwar Desai in conversation with Jyoti Malhotra
Devika Rani is (in)famous for enacting the ‘longest kiss’ in Indian cinematic history in the 1933 Bollywood film Karma, which happened to be her debut film. Apart from being extremely sensuous for the times, she also dared to lie on top of the hero Himanshu Rai, making no bones about her passion and kissed him back with equal fervour! At a time when intimate scenes were branded as taboo and actresses rebuked for salacious behaviour, Devika was displaying her emotions in public (albeit with her real-life husband Himanshu Rai), seemingly without inhibitions. What that did for her reputation is anybody’s guess but consider this: Devika had written the script for the scene herself!
Kishwar Desai is not known to be faint-hearted. Seasoned journalist Jyoti Malhotra understandably introduced her as ‘redoubtable’ as evident from her long list of publications tackling bold and challenging themes, a majority of which address violence against women. The award-winning author harbours a special affection for the Indian film industry, as apparent in her latest book ‘The Longest Kiss: The Life and Times of Devika Rani’. In this second book featuring a Bollywood actress – the first being ‘Darlingji: The True Love Story of Nargis and Sunil Dutt’ in which she captured the life of the ‘Mother India’ actress with amazing candour and chutzpah – Desai chronicles the breathtaking story of the first lady of Indian cinema, Devika Rani.
A young, beautiful, dynamic and ambitious woman of the 1920s, Devika was a trailblazer who took destiny into her own hands and became ‘India’s first international superstar’. When asked about her fascination with the actress, Desai said, ‘Devika represents a modern woman, and even though she lived in the 1930s-40s, many of her attitudes and ambitions we can identify with today’. The actress is usually painted as cold and calculative, and the book is Desai’s attempt at setting the record straight. She was frustrated with the constant negative image that was pushed forward and was determined to revive the memory of this brazen beauty, who managed to survive in a highly patriarchal world under distressing circumstances. As Desai declares with great elan, ‘she carved out a name and a space for herself, kicking out all the men who opposed her in a very nice, charming and strategic fashion; and I loved that!’
At this point, Malhotra inquired about the scene that inspired the title of the book, joking that they might as well get it out of the way! Desai animatedly described that people only knew it as the answer to a commonly asked question in quiz shows: ‘Which is the longest kiss in Indian Cinema?’ The answer would invariably be 1933, Karma, as people believed that the kiss exchange between Devika and Himanshu went on for a good 4-5 minutes! However, she disclosed quite amusingly, ‘Folks, I have timed it! It is not five minutes; it is around one and a half to two minutes, in not one but a series of kisses!’
The book primarily serves to humanise Devika Rani and lay bare her true nature as an intensely private person who kept her internal demons and battles to herself while putting on a brave face. The author achieved this by interspersing the book with intense letters that Devika wrote to her second husband, the famous Russian painter Svetoslav Roerich. Svetoslav came from a reputed background and family, which allowed Devika to connect with him, and the two shared a deeply passionate romance. Desai’s 15-year-long research on Devika Rani bore fruit in the form of these letters, which have not been in the public domain before - a fact that makes the book even more memorable.
Desai peppered the talk with anecdotes about the Garbo-esque star that sounded more like fiction than fact; such was the colourful life and ‘mystery’ surrounding her. Born as Devika Rani Chaudhuri to a wealthy and distinguished family, she grew up in England and was related to Tagore from her mother’s side, a connection she chose not to exploit. With Himanshu, she was one of the principal founders of Bombay Talkies in 1934.
The author shared a deeply moving account of the real Devika, saying the letters reveal that the actress hated the person she had become. We come to know that she had been scarred and traumatised by domestic abuse. Her marriage to Himanshu Rai was tempestuous, but Devika never went public with her side of the story.
Malhotra brought up the most controversial episode in Devika’s life during the filming of ‘Jeevan Naiya’, where she eloped in the middle of the shooting with the hero Najam-Ul-Hasan! Given the political and social milieu of the times, it was a scandal of massive proportions. Desai explained that Devika was going through a traumatic period in her marriage with Himanshu. Despite that, he persuaded her to return to Bombay Talkies and their marriage. Much to the bafflement of everyone, Devika gave a superb performance with a new hero that heralded the entry of Ashok Kumar into films.
An amusing revelation that Desai disclosed quite candidly was that after the elopement fiasco, the studio resolved to find a hero who would not fall prey to the irresistible charms of Devika Rani. Their search ended with Ashok Kumar, who was in that sense ‘Devika proof’! In fact, Desai recounts that he was petrified of her, but the two would later become a hit star pair in the years to come.
Through her book, Desai brings out the breadth of Devika Rani’s vision, her audaciousness and her cinematic zeal in putting her love of cinema above societal norms and conformity of the times. Devika reigned the celluloid world for a good decade and was already breaking through the glass ceiling in a film industry entirely dominated by men. The book also dwells on Himanshu Rai’s extramarital affairs and how Devika handled the truth of his having an illegitimate child from a previous relationship in a stoic fashion.
Devika Rani’s journey, both cinematic and personal, were far from easy. The fascinating vignettes penned by Desai make her all the more approachable and relatable in our times.
