The love story "Devdas", written in 1917 by 17-year-old Sarat Chandra
Chattopadhyay, is today considered the most widely read novel in India and has
been filmed no less than nine times, so that the story and the great actors who
have portrayed the role of the eponymous anti-hero are known to virtually all
Indian movie-goers. All the greater was the challenge to the young writer-director
Sanjay Leela Bhansali in his third feature film (after
Khamoshi, 1996,
and
Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam aka Straight from the Heart, 1999) to create
an original work that can stand up to the past screen adaptations. Despite extreme
difficulties during the production, he has met this challenge with spectacular
success, having produced a lavish feast for the eye and ear. Bhansali's Devdas,
the most expensive film ever made in India, should even appeal to international
audiences, if they could only be induced to watch this 2 hour 45 minute Bollywood
musical spectacle.
Devdas is a "Romeo and Juliet" kind of love story that strongly echoes
the myth of Krishna, Radha and Meera, as is clearly revealed in numerous songs
that enliven the movie. It is the tale of Devdas (Shahrukh Khan), the obstinate
and rebellious second son of the wealthy landlord Narayan Mukherjee. In Bhansali's
version, set in the 1940s, Devdas has been sent away to London to study law.
For ten years his childhood sweetheart Parvati, called Paro (the beautiful Aishwarya
Rai), fervently awaits his return, symbolized in the oil lamp she has kept burning
the entire time. Dev has done little to keep this love alive - he has sent only
five letters in ten years - but he almost breaks his mother's heart by rushing
first to see Paro upon his return. Despite the mutual teasing, the young couple
soon declare their love and seemed destined to live their life together in marriage.
Fate interferes, however, in the form of social conventions. Dev's father,
who has even been knighted by the British, thinks that his family stands far
above that of Paro's, whose mother comes from a family of singer-dancers. When
Paro's mother mistakenly thinks that Devdas' clan wants them to get married,
she proposes the idea, which is violently rejected by Dev's mother. Devdas is
forced to leave the house and sends a fateful letter to Paro, telling her to
forget him. In her despair, she consents to marry a wealthy aristocrat, which
in fact raises her to a higher social rank than the Mukherjee family.
But of course the lovers cannot find happiness. Paro's husband cannot forget
his first wife and Devdas takes to alcohol to drown his sorrow, living - apparently
chastely - with the beautiful courtesan Chandramukhi (Madhuri Dixit). In the
end Devdas dies of alcohol abuse before the doors of Paro's palace. She runs
toward him but the gates are closed - she has become a prisoner of the palace.
Devdas, costing some $10 to 12 million, took 275 days to shoot. With
the most sumptuous sets imaginable and excellent 70mm cinematography, it is
full of beautifully choreographed dances and songs accessible even to Western
ears. All of the sets were built in the studio and were not recreated through
computer tricks. Shahrukh Khan and former Miss World Aishwarya Rai, who are
superstars in India, have the right chemistry to make the love story believable.
It is certainly not a film that the feminist movement will appreciate, and Devdas'
childish obstinacy and knack of always doing the wrong thing often grate on
the Western mentality. But all in all, Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Devdas,
the first commercial Bollywood spectacle to be chosen for the official Cannes
program, is a movie that deserves all the international recognition it can get.
Stephen Locke
FIPRESCI
