The Devdas Syndrome
Nirupama Dutt
Few fictional heroes have dominated the India male psyche in the 20th century more than Devdas. Indeed, among the many sins’ novelist Sarat Chandra Chatterjee may have committed, the greatest is that of authoring Devdas. For, the eponymous hero of Chatterjee’novel has come to symbolize the weakling, indecisive male who can do little but drink himself to death. And this even when he had the choice of living in companionship with two women-- his childhood sweetheart Paro or the repentant prostitute Chandramukhi.
Considered the ultimate in romance of the unrequited, Devdas came alive on the silver screen as early as 1935, courtesy Paramtesh Chandra Barua. This prince from Assam identified so closely with Devdas that he made two versions of the film. In the Bengali version, he played the doomed hero. For the Hindi version, Saigal did the role with those haunting songs like Dukh ke din ab beetat naahi. As far as alcoholism went, saigal anyway embodied shades of Devdas -- and the portrayal was easy for the singing star.
Barua had staked his all in the production of these films. It is said that he went to the premiere with a loaded revolver, determined to kill himself were the people not to respond to the film. Devdas, however, was an all-time hit. New Theatres in Tamil remade the film next year, and it became a rage down south too.
Such was the power of this hero of fiction that he almost replaced Majnu of the Laila fame. The colloquial question to any unshaved man looking a bit lost would be: ``Kyon bhai, Devdas ban gaya kya?’’
Twenty years later when people had not quite forgotten Saigal’s portrayal, Bimal Roy who had worked as a cameraman for Barua remade Devdas with Dilip Kumar as hero, Suchitra Sen as paro and Vyjanthimala as Chandramukhi. The film, released in 1956, didn’t make just cinematic history but social too. One generation wept for Devdas played by Saigal; it was the second generation that was now deeping for Devdas again.
Recalls Hindi writer Shailendra Sail, who was a student in the days when Roy’s film was released, ``We lived and breathed like Devdas, growing our hair, sitting for long hours in the coffee house smoking and, those who had the dare, drank too. We all saw ourselves as clones of Devdas.’’ And now when we were moving through the very upbeat, upmarket, high-tech 21st century, the danger of Devdas returned courtesy Sanjay Leela bhainsali of Ham Dil De Chuke Sanam Devdas with Madhuri Dixit as Chandramukhi, Aishwarya Rai as Paro and Shahrukh Khan as Devdas. The choice of Shahrukh was interesting considering that he achieved stardom as psychopath lover.
What is the USP (unique selling point), as the modern marketing jargon goes, of this fiction-made monster? Fiml writer Firoze Rangoonwalla in A pictorial History of Indian Cinema writes, ``The essence of Devdas is love denied by class differences, so that the man drifts to ruin with wine and woman while the beloved becomes the housewife of a rich widower with children of the same age as their step-mother. In a much adored ending Devdas makes a long cart journey in the last stage of his life to die at Paro’s doorstep.’’ But this intention of focusing on social inequity was muffled by the sheer passion and intensity of the tragic romance.
Devdas and the eternal triangle became a recurring theme in Indian cinema. This was most evocative in Guru Dutt’s Pyaasa, in which social concerns were portrayed more potently. But it was in Kagaz ke Phool (1959) that Guru Dutt rehearsed his own death by suicide. Playing the role of producer-director who’s remarking Devdasa, and caught between two women, Guru Dutt’s own story became a doomed-hero saga with poet Kaifi Azmi crying out: `Ik baar to khud maut bhi ghabra gayi hogi; Yoon maut ho seene se lagaya nahi karte.’’
What irks one is that even in these days of instant love we have no yet finished with Devdas. The next generation too should take out the `kerchiefs and get ready to weep for him.
Nirupama Dutt
Few fictional heroes have dominated the India male psyche in the 20th century more than Devdas. Indeed, among the many sins’ novelist Sarat Chandra Chatterjee may have committed, the greatest is that of authoring Devdas. For, the eponymous hero of Chatterjee’novel has come to symbolize the weakling, indecisive male who can do little but drink himself to death. And this even when he had the choice of living in companionship with two women-- his childhood sweetheart Paro or the repentant prostitute Chandramukhi.
Considered the ultimate in romance of the unrequited, Devdas came alive on the silver screen as early as 1935, courtesy Paramtesh Chandra Barua. This prince from Assam identified so closely with Devdas that he made two versions of the film. In the Bengali version, he played the doomed hero. For the Hindi version, Saigal did the role with those haunting songs like Dukh ke din ab beetat naahi. As far as alcoholism went, saigal anyway embodied shades of Devdas -- and the portrayal was easy for the singing star.
Barua had staked his all in the production of these films. It is said that he went to the premiere with a loaded revolver, determined to kill himself were the people not to respond to the film. Devdas, however, was an all-time hit. New Theatres in Tamil remade the film next year, and it became a rage down south too.
Such was the power of this hero of fiction that he almost replaced Majnu of the Laila fame. The colloquial question to any unshaved man looking a bit lost would be: ``Kyon bhai, Devdas ban gaya kya?’’
Twenty years later when people had not quite forgotten Saigal’s portrayal, Bimal Roy who had worked as a cameraman for Barua remade Devdas with Dilip Kumar as hero, Suchitra Sen as paro and Vyjanthimala as Chandramukhi. The film, released in 1956, didn’t make just cinematic history but social too. One generation wept for Devdas played by Saigal; it was the second generation that was now deeping for Devdas again.
Recalls Hindi writer Shailendra Sail, who was a student in the days when Roy’s film was released, ``We lived and breathed like Devdas, growing our hair, sitting for long hours in the coffee house smoking and, those who had the dare, drank too. We all saw ourselves as clones of Devdas.’’ And now when we were moving through the very upbeat, upmarket, high-tech 21st century, the danger of Devdas returned courtesy Sanjay Leela bhainsali of Ham Dil De Chuke Sanam Devdas with Madhuri Dixit as Chandramukhi, Aishwarya Rai as Paro and Shahrukh Khan as Devdas. The choice of Shahrukh was interesting considering that he achieved stardom as psychopath lover.
What is the USP (unique selling point), as the modern marketing jargon goes, of this fiction-made monster? Fiml writer Firoze Rangoonwalla in A pictorial History of Indian Cinema writes, ``The essence of Devdas is love denied by class differences, so that the man drifts to ruin with wine and woman while the beloved becomes the housewife of a rich widower with children of the same age as their step-mother. In a much adored ending Devdas makes a long cart journey in the last stage of his life to die at Paro’s doorstep.’’ But this intention of focusing on social inequity was muffled by the sheer passion and intensity of the tragic romance.
Devdas and the eternal triangle became a recurring theme in Indian cinema. This was most evocative in Guru Dutt’s Pyaasa, in which social concerns were portrayed more potently. But it was in Kagaz ke Phool (1959) that Guru Dutt rehearsed his own death by suicide. Playing the role of producer-director who’s remarking Devdasa, and caught between two women, Guru Dutt’s own story became a doomed-hero saga with poet Kaifi Azmi crying out: `Ik baar to khud maut bhi ghabra gayi hogi; Yoon maut ho seene se lagaya nahi karte.’’
What irks one is that even in these days of instant love we have no yet finished with Devdas. The next generation too should take out the `kerchiefs and get ready to weep for him.
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