Autobiography of a Lover and a Loser. Review on Devdas

The sound of love brings pleasure to the face of every man. Its resonant tones are said to be the perfect remedy to a depressed soul. Many a great poet and writer has extolled the virtues of love and called it divine, heavenly and attributed miracles to it. It has been called the harbinger of happiness, the messenger of good times and the reason for celebrations. But like all good things, anything taken in excess is harmful; even something as divine as love.

If love has the power to convert a beast into a human being, it also has the power to put an end to all things humane. If love has been the ambassador for peace, it has also been the cause for war. Love if requited, can be a boon as sweet as ambrosia, but if unrequited, can also be as poisonous as cyanide and can take one to imminent doom.

Devdas deals with the effects of an unrequited love on a person not strong enough to confront it or move on in life. Never before and never after has a hero’s role been depicted as darkly and with so much of a defeatist attitude. The character of Devdas is loosely modeled on the Grecian tragedy heroes who suffer on account of destiny and therein lies the vulnerability of the character. Unlike the Shakespearean heroes, Devdas is not a creation of his own errors but suffers since he fails to connect to a changing milieu. On a superficial level, Devdas may appear to be the story of a loser, a man who lost in love and could never accept that he had lost. But actually, it’s the story of every man who has failed in some attempt and refused to give it another shot for the fear of an encore.

The film is based on a novel written by the great Sarat Chandra and like all other works of the great writer, his success lies in creating a character that not only envelops us in a blanket of empathy but also reminds us about some incidents of a past better forgotten.

Dilip Kumar as Devdas stamps his name on the role. One cannot imagine any other actor in that role and that is the hallmark of the performance. To put it succinctly, Dilip is Devdas and Devdas is Dilip. Never has any character been so closely identified with an actor and that is the thespian’s greatest achievement. The tragedy king has scaled new heights of emotions with his performance in his movie and his ‘death’ scene is a three-course instruction in acting to wannabe actors. See him drunk moving down the streets of Calcutta (Kolkata), trying to remember and simultaneously erase the memories of his old paramour and you will understand why there cannot be any who can challenge his performance as Devdas. One another scene, which deserves special mention, is the scene, wherein he’s trying to meet Paro for one last time before he dies. The agony of a person hopelessly lost in love is to be seen to be believed. No doubt, he penetrates your psyche and makes you feel his frustration, agony and misery all the way to the end.

Suchitra Sen as Paro performs her role with a quiet dignity. In the role of a woman, who sacrifices her love at the altar of her family and who in a moment of misguided vengeance throws away her love only to repent later, Suchitra is mindblowing. This was a role that had several severe contradictions and to perform the role as well as to ensure that the audience reciprocated its feelings was no small task but Suchitra handles the same with complete finesse. The scene where she tries to force Devdas into eloping with her and again the scene where she tries to reprimand him on his drinking habits are a classic case of intuitive acting. Suchitra was always a big name in Bengali cinema and it’s unfortunate that despite such a brilliant tour-de-force performance she failed to create for herself a niche in Hindi Cinema.

Vyjayanthimala as Chandramukhi, the courtesan with a heart of gold is absolutely divine. The role of Chandramukhi is a difficult one to perform since the hero’s, as well as the author’s fascination with Paro hardly gives the role, the forum to put across its feelings in a firm and convincing manner. The actress however seems unfazed by this handicap and astonishingly manages to steal the thunder from the author-backed role of Paro. Her’s is a role of a woman pining away in silence for a man - enamoured irreversibly with another woman, who cannot be achieved - but still refusing to accept her loss to that shadow. A role, later apprised by many actresses in later movies, it’s noteworthy that none could bring to their performance the purity and nobility of character that transcends a love to divine proportions and which is the hallmark of Vyjayanthimala’s performance.

Motilal as Chunnilal, a drunkard friend of Devdas plays his role with his characteristic flamboyance. Watching this vintage performance from this great actor, one is well aware of the adage that ‘old wine always tastes better’. To his credit, the actor manages to turn a seemingly inconsequential side role to a performance-de-tour and this is his finest hour. Not many would concur with the statement that Devdas was as much a creation of Chunnilal’s whims and fancies as was he a creation of Paro’s betrayal, but that is the truth of the matter. The role required a certain degree of carefree behaviour, which could enlighten the deep recesses of the hero’s traumatic psyche and at the same time attract him to his doom. Motilal delivered it with élan. A little overstatement in a loud role such as his would have been enough to kill the role and the movie but the veteran manages to portray his role to the perfect decimal.

S D Burman appears in fine mettle in the movie. The way he has used the rich sonorous tilt of Talat Mehmood in “Mitwa”, without the support of the orchestra is commendable. Talat Mehmood was one of the best voices in the Hindi film industry of the 50s and this film highlights his association with the great SD. SD follows up with another Lata gem “Jise Tu Qubool Karle”, one of the best songs on frustration in love. However, this is no Pyaasa or Guide or even Abhimaan, so do not expect an album full of brilliance. All the songs are situational and therein lies their success.

Bimal Roy, the greatest director of Hindi Cinema impresses yet again with a movie as dark as life and as deep as an ocean. None could have envisaged the depths of the book or portrayed it so truthfully on screen, without compromising the premise of the novel and therein lies the greatness and richness of the director. Each and every scene in the movie is a lyrical representation of love and loss and the stamp of the director is evident in even the slightest gesture of the protagonists. One of his major achievements in the movie is his effective delineation of the roles played by Suchitra and Vyjayanthimala, in such a manner that both appear as full blooded individuals in their own right.. His success can be judged from the fact that 50 years down the line and after many more Devdas’ his Devdas still remains the definitive, classic and purist choice of the author’s interpretation on screen.

In an era when love was worshipped and nobody had the guts to portray its seamier side, when happy endings were the norm and not the exception, where optimism was the norm, it was one man who stood and turned conventional wisdom on his head and in the process created history. This movie is the hallmark of a genius director and the perfect culmination of his association with the legendary Dilip Kumar.

Before ditching or after getting ditched, watch this movie. It may not get you back your love but it may save you from creating another Devdas.