Article Written By EIH Researcher And Writer
Mumtaz Mohiuddin
Devdas is one of the earliest talkies that the Bombay Film Industry produced, a staple film that went on to enjoy unprecedented popularity. Based on a novel written in 1917 by the great Bengali writer, Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, Devdas became the most adapted literary work in Indian Cinema crossing across many languages and cultures. In the next decades, we saw many remakes of this film that looked at it afresh, giving it a new interpretation and a new life with each version. Some of the biggest names in Indian cinema played the leading role of ‘Devdas’ who in their way immortalized this character.
The important question that one needs to ask is, why did the character Devdas become so successful? Why is Devdas so popular in the 90s to emerge as the most sought-after role in Indian cinema? What gravitated the audience towards this film whose alienated hero continues to receive love and admiration even today? Why does this character invoke sympathies? Watching Devdas becomes important because, in the process of understanding Devdas, we certainly unravel and understand the nature of the Indian audience.
Devdas, the story’s main character, is a reckless young man, irresponsible, self-absorbed, who is not in control of his life. But how he is portrayed through various incarnations in Hindi cinema invokes sympathies not hate for him. He is projected in such a way that the audience empathizes with this man who otherwise seems an unlikeable character. Devdas becomes the model of the ardent lover whose love remains unrequited, whose passion is never consummated. He is weak and indecisive at times and is robbed of his agency. You will at times feel disappointed with this man for his frustrating nature, and the inability to act, especially when action seems most necessary, but you do not hate him. (Creekmur, 2007, p. 180). He becomes self-destructive and sinks into the whirlpool of despair. In Devdas, 1955, in one of its iconic scenes, Devdas played by the legendary actor Dilip Kumar is desolated while drinking alcohol, he says “Kaun kambakht hai jo bardasht Karne Ke Liye Peeta hai… main to Peeta hun ke bas saans le sakun.” Gayatri Chatterjee calls Devdas, “An archetype of the genre of the self-destructive urban hero” (Chatterjee 2003: 62). This reminds me of Ghalib who says;
Mai se gharaz Nashat hai Kis ru-siyah ko
Ik guna be- khudi mujhe din raat chahiye
Who disgraced one intends to want pleasure from wine?
But, I need a particular kind of selflessness, from wine, night and day
Devdas who has emerged as a cult hero becomes an important case study that symbolizes tragedy and unrequited love. We resonate with Devdas in many ways, mostly on account of his inevitable downfall which brings more pain to the audience. Because somewhere we feel he doesn’t deserve all this. He may be careless but he is not a wicked person. He is weak and full of complexities and contradictions. He makes mistakes and pays for them dearly. His own decisions bring his destruction. He is not flawless, but besides his flaws, we empathize with him throughout his whole journey. We love him and grief strikes us when he dies at Paro’s doorstep.
The success saga of Devdas lies in small nuances, in minute details. It’s about how small mistakes and wrong conversations prove detrimental and bring tragedy to its protagonist which can be summed up as “Lamho nay khata ki, sadiyoun say saza paaye”. The loss is felt at all times by all of us. Its central character lives with this loss, he realizes how the tragedy could have been avoided but is unable to deal with his fate. The character of Devdas is deep, and complex which stands aloof in Indian Cinema. He does too little and reacts too late but is still loved and not loathed, even for the minutest second. Instead, all you choose to do it, you simply choose to breathe with this character rather than hate him and that’s where the beauty of the character ‘Devdas’ lies.
Bibliography
1. Bose, Mihir, Bollywood, A History, Lotus Collection, 2006.
2. Creekmur, C. K. (2007). ‘Remembering, repeating, and working through Devdas’. In H. R. M. Pauwels (Ed.), Indian Literature and Popular Cinema: Recasting Classics (pp. 173-190). Abingdon: Routledge.
3. Devdas, the Aristotelian Tragic Hero of Indian Literature: A Case Study by Yasaman Nouri, Kharazmi University of Tehran, Iran.
4. Vasudevan, Ravi, The Melodramatic Public; Film, Form, and spectatorship in Indian Cinema, Permanent Black, 2010
5. https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/movies/the-devdas-syndrome-in-indian-cinema/article17750122.ece
6. https://theprint.in/features/reel-take/why-bimal-roys-devdas-remains-the-first-among-equals/180379/
