A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry
A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry
List: $14.62 | Sale: $10.23
Club: $7.31

A Fine Balance
A BBC Radio full-cast drama

Author: Rohinton Mistry

Narrator: Full Cast, Shernaz Patel, Neil Bhoopalam, Kenneth Desai, Anand Tiwari, Rajit Kapur, Zafar Karachiwala

Unabridged: 2 hr 50 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/21/2021


Synopsis

A compelling dramatisation of Rohinton Mistry's Booker Prize-nominated novel about India's underclass

India, 1975. Desperate to preserve her independence from her abusive brother, Parsi widow Dina Dilal turns her cramped city apartment into a sweatshop. But when her eyesight begins to fail, she hires two tailors - uncle and nephew Ishvar and Om, who have fled from caste violence in their native village. She also takes in a lodger - Maneck, a reluctant student from the mountains.

Initially wary of each other, the four strangers soon form a close bond of friendship, loyalty and love. But their lives are about to be turned upside down, for India in the mid-1970s is in a state of crisis, riven by political turmoil and corruption. As Indira Gandhi's 'Emergency' measures come into force, civil liberties are suspended and human rights suppressed. In this climate of chaos, violence and injustice, Dina and her makeshift family find themselves struggling to survive and facing an uncertain future...

Tragic, comic, poignant and redemptive, this heart-rending drama is a celebration of the human spirit under inhuman conditions. Adapted by Ayeesha Menon and Kewel Karim, it stars Shernaz Patel as Dina, Kenneth Desai as Ishvar, Anand Tiwari as Om and Neil Bhoopalam as Maneck.

Production credits
Written by Rohinton Mistry
Dramatised by Ayeesha Menon and Kewel Karim
Produced by Nadir Khan
Directed by John Dryden
Music: Sacha Putnam
Sound Design: Steve Bond
Production Manager: Niloufer Sagar
A Goldhawk Production for BBC Radio 4

Cast
Dina - Shernaz Patel
Ishvar - Kenneth Desai
Om - Anand Tiwari
Maneck - Neil Bhoopalam
Rustom - Zafar Karachiwala
Ibrahim - Rajit Kapur
The Thakur - Jayant Kripalaini
Ashraf - Darshan Jariwala
Nusswan - Farid Currim
Ruby - Anahita Uberoi
Narayan - Vivek Madan
Young Dina - Tirtha Kotrial
Young Ishvar - Eshan Savla
Young Narayan - Samar Uraizee
Ensemble - Jim Sarbh, Abhishek Saha, Meherangiz Acharya-Dar, Faezeh Jalali, Shivani Tanksale, Nadir Khan
Beggarmaster - Ankur Vikal
Worm - Namit Das
Rajaram - Jaimini Pathak

First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 22 March-5 April 2015

©2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Reviews

Goodreads review by Z on August 16, 2007

I stayed up all night to finish this book, because the climax is simply unputdownable. I am hesitant to formally review it because it's one of those few books that can't be confined within the bounds of a critique or summary, and one that is so magnificent and moving that the idea of reviewing it ma......more

Goodreads review by Emily May on June 07, 2022

Brutal, awful book about India in the aftermath of partition and in the midst of the catastrophic State of Emergency declared by Indira Gandhi. If I hadn't already read several firsthand accounts from this time, I might have questioned whether anyone could possibly suffer as many atrocities as the ch......more

Goodreads review by Candi on June 14, 2018

Like most Americans, I remember clearly the date September 11, 2001. I recall where I was standing when I first heard about the attack on the Twin Towers. My first child, a son, was almost eight months old at the time. My first reaction was fear; later, sorrow and grief set in. In my mind ran the th......more

Goodreads review by Kara on December 29, 2010

This is probably the most depressing book I have ever read in my entire life. Not only is its chronicling of four lives bleak and without the slightest hint of hope or redemption, but it does this with a comprehensive scope and an unforgiving manner. Even re-reading it, knowing what was going to hap......more

Goodreads review by Paul on May 06, 2011

Rohinton Mistry has written three whopping novels set in India, Such a Long Journey, A Fine Balance, and Family Matters, and they're all brilliant. He doesn't have pyrotechnic prose like the DeLillos and Pynchons, he's the tortoise to their hares, he plods on with his careful beautiful pictures of t......more