Fyodor Dostoevsky’s ‘Crime and Punishment’ in radio play format on Akashvani

Akashvani Thiruvananthapuram broadcasts classic Russian novel Crime and Punishment as a radio play

Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, considered one of the heavyweights of world literature, has got a radio adaptation. The classic Russian novel published in 1866, which goes deep into human psyche and the impact of a crime on human mind, is currently being broadcast as a radio play by Akashvani Thiruvananthapuram.

“We took this up in connection with Akashvani turning 75. The broadcaster has done several radio plays based on classic works. But this is of an epic proportion, especially in terms of the number of episodes. Our plays have gone up to just over 30 parts. But this will exceed that figure by several times,” says V Sivakumar, deputy director (programmes), Akashvani Thiruvananthapuram.

Raskolnikov, a college student, is the protagonist of the novel. Living in abject poverty, he murders two women and the novel follows his anguish and mental trauma.

The book, which runs into six chapters and an epilogue, has been adapted into audio format by writer and critic M Rajeev Kumar, a former staff of Akashvani, and directed by PA Biju, assistant director (programmes).

Rajeev, who has adapted several literary works in Malayalam and from other languages as radio plays, observes that his prerogative while writing the play was to keep it simple. “It is the laymen who listen to the radio and so it was important that they connected with the story. And I had to simplify the narrative without compromising on the crux of the story. Besides that, some of the long Russian names have been shortened. However, we have not excluded any portion from the original work,” Rajeev says.

The play is expected to cross over 70 episodes, says Biju adding that he had apprehensions about taking up the work. “It has been a mammoth task for all the people who have worked on it. For instance, the novel has a lot of monologues and lengthy dialogues that carry so much depth. The challenge lay in conveying the essence of these conversations to the listeners. In fact, it took several months for us to complete the production although the recording got over much earlier,” says Biju.

He adds that silence has been given prominence so as to give enough time for the listeners to grasp the scenes. Since the story is set in Russia of the 1800s, music had to complement the premise. Dheeraj Sukumaran has composed the score, while VA Deepa has done the sound mixing.