Devdas (1955)

Director:

Bimal Roy

Writers:

Rajinder Singh Bedi (writer)
Saratchandra Chatterjee (novel)

Genre:

Musical | Romance

Plot:

Childhood sweethearts, Devdas and Paro grow up in a small village with a love-hate relationship which changes to love when they mature. Devdas' dad does not approve of his marriage or even any friendship with Paro, and sends him away to Calcutta where he is introduced to a dancer, Chandramukhi, who adores him and falls hopelessly in love with him. Devdas in not aware of Chandramukhi's affection and love for him, as most of his time is spent in a alcoholic stupor, and lust for Paro.

Plot Keywords:

Love | Village | Childhood | Marriage | Dancer

Awards:

3 wins

Cast

Dilip Kumar	...	Devdas
Vyjayanthimala	...	Chandramukhi (as Vyjayanti Mala)
Motilal	...	Chunni Babu
Suchitra Sen	...	Parvati (Paro)
Nasir Hussain	...	Dharamdas
Murad	...	Devdas' father
Kanhaiyalal	...	Teacher
Moni Chatterjee
Iftekhar	...	Bhijudas
Shivraj	...	Nilkant (Parvati's dad)
Nana Palsikar	...	Street singer
Ashim Kumar
Ram Kumar
Vikram Kapoor
Ved

Runtime:

159 min

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Bimal Roy Productions

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Bade Dilwala (1999)

Soundtrack:

Sajan ki ho gayi gori

Unforgettable

One of my favourite films from the Indian cinema, the story beautifully adapted and assembled by Bimal Roy and his expert studio. It hasn't got the colour, scope and audio/visual technical panache of the 2002 version, but more importantly to me has better framing, acting, music and above all else, atmosphere.

Today's highly paid film critics in all media ignore Devdas and other similar musical films as being populist and therefore unworthy of their high-brow attention. Well, it's their loss! What we have is an extremely well crafted film, complemented with S.D. Burman's scintillating music woven perfectly into the plot. Not that it matters, the first time I watched Devdas in the mid '90's I thought that Vyjayanthimala as the prostitute Chandramukhi bore an uncanny resemblance to Kate Winslet! Dilip Kumar's finest screen moments bar Mughal-E-Azam are here too, although he didn't have a whole range of emotions to portray! Don't let supposedly erudite Western sneering put you off all Indian or Bollywood films and rub your nose in the mud with Pather Panchali - this one is also a world classic.

To watch this epic of thwarted and then forbidden love and one man's inner turmoil brought on first by social custom and then the bottle is always ultimately rewarding to me, but be warned - the long journey is poetically, relentlessly and devastatingly depressing.