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Devdas
Release
Date: July 12th 2002
Distributor: Eros International
Certificate: 12
Starring: Shahrukh Khan, Madhuri Dixit, Aishwarya Rai, Vijayendra Ghatge,
Smita Jayakar, Kiron Kher
Director: Sanjay
Leela Bhansali
Running Time:
181
mins
Bollywood,
Bollywood, Bollywood. It seems like that’s all that we have heard
this summer – not that it’s a bad thing. No, the explosion of
Indian film from almost a garage industry, to the point where they can spend
$10,000,000 on an extravagant production such as this is amazing. ‘Devdas’
is the 9th adaptation of a 1917 novel by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, and
stars the biggest of India’s actors at the moment, Shahrukh Khan,
together with model-and-Miss-World-actress Aishwarya Rai. It is probably
the highest profile Asian film since ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’,
but with a running time of 3 hours, it may find its crossover potential
severely limited.
The
story is a tale of Devdas (Khan) who returns home to India after studying
law in England. Welcomed back into the bosom of his family, his first port-of-call
is his childhood sweetheart, Paro (Rai), a gorgeous beauty who he wants
to marry. But without a worry, his parents immediately forbid the union
due to Paro’s lowly status. Heartbroken, but loyal to their parents
the couple realise that their lives are not to be lived together.Paro’s mother however is livid that her daughter is seen to be not good enough, and goes straight into negotiations to get her an even better match…
But
new husband Zaminder Bhuvan (Ghutge) isn’t quite the catch that Paro
had hoped for; in fact he is still devoted to his dead first wife, and won’t
even consummate their relationshipBut Paro makes the best of what she has, and as the film progresses she develops into a strong female character.
Devdas on the other hand, prevented from marrying Paro, has sunk to a very low state, drinking all the time, his life only enlivened by a meeting with a delightful courtesan (Dixit) who falls in love with him and tries to make him happy…
‘Devdas’,
as is usual for Bollywood films, has exuberant musical numbers interspersed
with the dramatic portions of the film, and the music by Ismail Darbar is
excellent. The film was the first Indian film to get a showing at the Cannes
film festival, which has managed to alert people to its presence, but whether
or not it will be able to make the crossover to a mainstream audience we
will have to wait and see.Basically if you are into Indian film, then you will be going to see ‘Devdas’, but if you want an introduction to the genre, I would highly recommend it.
Clayton Everett
