An Everlasting Love Story... Review on Devdas - New

From the director of the emotional saga ‘Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam’ comes yet another most awaited tragic love story, ‘Devdas,’ the winner of 11 Filmfare Awards.

The classical love story written over 80 years ago by Chandra Chattopadhye, was filmed with the ‘original Devdas’ Dillip Kumar yet Shah Rukh Khan follows his acting naturally as if he was too the ‘original Devdas’.

The Characters…

Shah Rukh Khan as Devdas

Aishwairya Rai as Parvati/Paro

Maduri Dixit as Chandramukhi

Jackie Shroff as Chunni Babu

Kiron Kher as Sumitra

Smita Jaykar as Kaushalya

Vijayendra Ghatge as Zamindar Bhuvan

The Background…

Devdas and Paro are childhood friends that are very close but since Devdas’ family is rich in society and Paro’s has a history of selling the daughter and sister of the house, Devdas’ father does not like the two playing together. He decides there is one way to separate them, to send Devdas to London for law studies. Poor Devdas obeys his parents and leave the Havili, only to leave a small Paro running behind the cart shouting ‘Devvvvvvvaaaaaaaaaaa.’

Believing that if a Diva is lit on the name of a close one, that person returns quickly, Paro lights a Diva on the name of Devdas for ten full years making sure it does not blow out. Paro’s mother Sumitra is overjoyed by the love of the two and dreams of them getting married one day.

So the Romantic Story Starts…

News has it that Devdas is returning home and his family is absolutely in joy. Everywhere there are celebrations. However, Devdas does not go straight to his mother Kaushalya but to Paro his childhood love. She hides from him, refusing to show her face and they make a decision as the moon shines, Paro’s face will be seen.

Back as Devdas’ Havali, Devdas’ mother is not too pleased and his sister-in-law poisons her against Sumitra and Paro.

Both ladies make a plan that Sumitra will be invited to the celebration of Devdas’ sister-in-law being pregnant, where she will dance wildly and be humiliated infront of the village people. They succeed and insult her by saying they sell the women in their families but she does not sit back and watch but instead tells her that their family will never be happy. Twists follow and Devdas turns to his college friend Chunni Babu, only to be lead into the world of alcohol and prostitutes. There he meets Chandramukhi who too falls for Devdas and all this leads to the emotional tragic ending.

The Performances

All the stars in the film were extremely good even if they had just a small role. Their dialogues and movement made it seem that it’s not a film but reality as time has moved back. Each star has put in hard work so I think it will be unfair to only comment about Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwairya Rai and Madhuri Dixit’s performances.

The Music

The classical songs were a change of the modern songs we hear these days. The songs also told the story of ‘Devdas’ making sure that both the songs and story flowed together. With Saroj Khan as the choreographer of the song sequences like Dola Re Dola, the music was given a grand look. Ismail Darbar the music director has also done a great job with the classical music as it is a very hard job taking a film that has been remade many times with classical music and creating new fresh songs.

My Verdict

Ok as the film started I wasn’t looking forward to it. It seems really boring and I was hoping to give it a miss BUT one hour into the film and the scene of Kiron Kher’s anger the film takes a twist and is no longer slow. The pace is fast but the last scenes are slow paced again to make it more emotional. It made me remember the story of Romeo and Juliet, as if this was the Desi version.

I really enjoyed watching this film and I am hoping to watch it again someday.

It is a classic lovestory to remember.