Why this enduring obsession with Devdas?

THE popular belief was that what could have been done cinematically to the ever-grey Devdas had been done after Anurag Kashyap's contemporary take in Dev D (2007), based on the MMS scandal of a schoolgirl, the Emotional atyachaar song, drugging in a dark bar and whips and high boots in seedy Paharhganj hotels  instead of the song and dance of mujra. But no, Sudhir Mishra had other ideas and had been working for several years on his version of the epic. Now, Aur Devdas has been completed with Rahul Bhatt in the lead. And what is the latest take on this recurring theme. “I am dedicating the film to both Saratchandra and Shakespeare. Though my film is a take on Saratchandra's Devdas, it  then moves into Shakespearean territory,” says Mishra. If Kashyap had given a Punjabi locale to the saga, Mishra moves it to violence and power politics of  Uttar Pradesh with the hunger for power doing the lovers apart.

 

Devdas is nearly a 100 years old. The character was born from the pen of Sarat Chandra Chatttopadhyay (1836-1938) in the novella of the same name written in 1917.  However, it continues to be an obsession not just in India but in Pakistan and Bangladesh too considering the number of times films have been made on the tragic love triangle in Bangla, Hindi, Urdu, Malyalam, Telugu and Assamese too. Pakistan has seen two versions in Urdu of this saga in 1965 and 2010. It is interesting to read a view on this obsession from across the border. Qaisar Abbas writes in the Pakistan Forum: “The most devastating effect of the Devdas syndrome, however, lies in contaminating the society with the dangerous virus of self-destruction and pessimism. This attitude has deeply permeated the psyche of several generations in the subcontinent born before or after the Partition. The emotional and pessimistic attitude of these generations, who remain aloof from their social realities, demonstrate a clear indifference to burning issues of the society”. Nevertheless, the best actors have vied for this coveted role from P.C. Barua playing the hero as well as director in the first version in Bangla. This was the first talkie but a few years before Devdas was also a silent film as early as 1928 in an adaptation starring Phani Burma. 

Barua identified with this uncertain protagonist of an aristocratic Bengali zamindar family. Legend has it that when Barua, who was himself the son of a wealthy zamindar of Gauripur in Assam and as wayward as they come, went to the premier of the film with a pistol in his pocket so that he could kill himself if the film failed. That was not to be and Barua became a star overnight. The film was a phenomenal success the cine-goers identified completely with the Bacchus-loving Barua and his role. The next year, Barua chose to take his much-loved narrative to a wider national audience by making the film in Hindi in 1936 but he chose an singer-actor who was as different from Barua as could be but for the shared love of the bottle: Kundan Lal Saigal, of course. Saigal with an unruly lock on his forehead and subtle portrayal of the tragic hero went onto reaffirm the magism and Barua had created history a second time. Interestingly, that was the time of youth surging forward and taking part in the struggle for freedom from colonial rule. Yet it was the uncertain, drunk and decadent Devdas who could stir a collective euphoria like none other!

Post-Independence, when it was time to build a new nation, the popular imagination was nevertheless, once again captured once again by Devdas with Saigal's persona replaced by the romantic Pathan, Dilip Kumar in Bimal Roy's take in 1955. The Dilip Kumar spell remained for nearly half a century till Sanjay Lila Bhansali came forth with Devdas in 2002 — full of glitz and glamour and Shahrukh Khan in the avtaar of the doomed hero. The cine-goers were bowled over once again. The Time magazine rated it as one of the 10 best films of the millennium. The new century was a fast-moving one and 2007 brought Anurag Kashyap on the same theme but  with a change of scenario in his Dev D with newcomer Abhay Deol. Filmed in the Punjabi neighbourhood and Paharh Ganj brothels, Kashyap's version dealt less with romance but more with the decadence of modern youth to drink and drugs. Well, the critics, the media and the people loved it nevertheless and the dark saga with a twist in the tale for here the protagonist decides to start afresh with the help of the “fallen” angel, leaving behind the loss of the childhood love.

 

This never-ending fixation with the novella that Sarat Chandra is believed to have said that had he known the terrible effect the story would have had on the youth, he would never have written it. Well, Sarat Babu need not have felt guilty because probably he had had written that what was already present in the Indian male psyche.  Poonam Arora who has taught for two decades at the University of Michigan in the US analyses it thus in a paper: “So powerful was the appeal of the Devdas persona for the successive generations of actors and audiences that while the former became inextricably linked with the role, the latter passionately debated the relative strengths of each actor's interpretation of Devdas”. The scholar labels Devdas as “India's Emasculated Hero” and views him in the context of sado-masochism and colonialism: “According to the cultural logic of colonised India, Devdas is a hero rather than a coward; he is successful in refuting the negative construction of him as a morally and physically effete man by maintaining his chastity”. Many more directors were obsessed with the Devdas story and wished to tell it their way.

 

Notable among them were the legendary Guru Dutt and the poetic Gulzar. In his autobiographical Kaagaz ke Phool (1959), he showed the director thwarted in his effort to make his version of the story. The director was played by Guru Dutt and Paro in the film within the film was, of course, his favourite Waheeda Rehman. The film is often described as one in which Guru Dutt was rehearsing his own death. His earlier film, Pyaasa (1957) too had shades of Devdas with the poet protagonist Vijay, which Guru Dutt played wonderfully on the wings of Sahir Ludhianvi's poetry, caught between two women but in that he broke the stereotypes by walking away into the future with streetwalker Gulabo, Waheeda once again.

Gulzar started shooting his version of Devdas in 1976, picking Dharmendra for the coveted role with Hema Malini as Paro and Sharmila Tagore as Chandramukhi. Some 10 days of shooting were done and RD Burman composed two songs but suddenly the producer changed his mind and the project was closed. It is believed that the producer wished to replace Dharmendra with Rajesh Khanna. However, Gulzar says: “The producer did not assign any reason, just withdrew the project. He may have had other ideas but Dharmendra seemed to be the ideal choice for he was like the hero of the novel — in evergreen adolescence. Yes Devdas is endearing because he is truly adolescent all through life and in his death. On the other hand, Paro becomes a woman overnight but our hero remains a boy always.” Gulzar says that he would have liked to make the film but it was not to be.

 

It seems pertinent to see the gender construct in the film. Bimal Roy's daughter Rinki Roy Bhattacharya in her book on the legacy of her father, The Man who spoke in Pictures, aptly describes Devdas the hero thus: “Devdas has been to the Indian actor what Hamlet is to his western counterpart.” So Hamlet-like he must vacillate in each to be or not to be whereas the two women in his life, Paro and Chandramukhi, are doers. The former dares to break social taboos and reach out to Devdas who cannot face the situation and puts it off. Wounded in the heart, she yet regains her self-respect and honourably fulfills her social obligations. Chandramukhi gives him love and compassion and in the process changes her own way of life. The weak hero is pitted against two strong women whom he has nothing to give but his own decay and death. While one waits to see Mishra's unfolding of the Devdas saga on the screen, one knows that this will not be the last word in reel life on this saga. Hopefully, here will be some changes in the perception in the times to come. It would be interesting indeed to see a woman director retell Devdas from a feminine perspective.