Whose Devdas is it ?
Devdas has been discussed and mentioned in discussions on Bollywood,and in connection with jilted lovers,or failed love affairs,for over five decades now.Besides reading about him in Sharatchand Chatterjees novel,we saw him in four films, two of which went ahead to become almost immortal, the one of Dilip Kumars and the extravaganza of Leela Bhansali,and now we have another adaptation of Devdas,the DEV D. At this juncture, it becomes relevant to introspect and see as to what made Devdas, so important and famous, atleast in Indian folk lure, like Romeo and Majnu! Few pertinent questions that come to my mind are, who is Devdas, whom does he represent or infact, what is Devdas?
Devdas is no longer a character from a novel or just a hero in a movie.He has come out of these and has broken the boundaries of social classes and the norms of society.He may be a jobless slumdweller smitten by the love of the dark,sharp-featured,thinly-clad girl of the neighbouring hutment or a rich megastar in love with an universal beauty.Devdas is an emotion,a phenomenon,-may be a loser or a winner,but is love personified. Time has immortalized Devdas as an expression of silent, unexpressed love
All remakes are compared with the previous ones .and hence this is also an appropriate time ,to re-visit Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Devdas which did well at the box-office. The megastarrer cost over 50 crore rupees., Did the silent love of Devdas,really needed such a loud and extravagant expression ?Did he actually need to heap Paro with tones of gold to highlight her helpless,or dress Chandramukhi in outfits costing 15lakhs each to bring out the sensuality or support of a nauchgirl for a jilted suffering lover ? Could the dazzling sets correctly portray the sadness in the eyes of Devdas or the darkness in his life ?The viewer probably got lost in the sets,costumes,choreography and the cinematography and missed Devdas totally. Devdas went unnoticed and unrecognized like we miss the forest for the trees . Bhansali succeeded in making a grand entertainer but failed in portraying the complexity of his simple love or the strength of his weakness
For those who have seen both the previous DevDas, the one with Dilip is remembered more, and now its time to judge, what the latest version-Dev D has in store for us
Dr Sanjay Kapoor Lucknow