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Sudhir Mishra On Daas Dev, And The Other Hindi Films On Devdas

From PC Barua’s version starring KL Saigal, to his own film, the director of Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi takes us through the Hindi Devdas down the ages

Sudhir Mishra On Daas Dev, And The Other Hindi Films On Devdas, Film Companion

Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Devdas (2002)

Sudhir Mishra On Daas Dev, And The Other Hindi Films On Devdas, Film Companion
Realism is widely confused as the only form of good cinema. I find that very odd. If I keep a camera in the middle of a street and capture everything around it, what have I done? What Sanjay Leela Bhansali does in Devdas, which I saw in Cannes Film Festival, is create a spectacle and a sense of scale from a story about loss, and good music. Shah Rukh Khan had this sense of doomed arrogance of someone who suddenly realises that he is vulnerable, that he is forever entwined with this woman who he can’t do without. I remember the scene in the beginning when Shah Rukh Khan first comes into Paro’s room after returning from London, when he catches the buzzing mosquito (because he doesn’t like the fact that anyone touches Paro). The film’s stylisation and the performances are in tune.
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