Film

Devdas (2002)

Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Lovely Paro (Rai) has been carrying a torch (literally) for childhood playmate Devdas (Khan) ever since the Mukherjees packed him off to London for a bespoke education. His mother has missed him, too, but her petulance when he first calls on Paro on his way home suggests she'd hardly welcome any notion of the sweethearts' wedding. Nor would class-conscious disciplinarian Mr Mukherjee sway her. So it is that Devdas comes to drown his sorrows at the brothel of famed courtesan Chandramukhi (Dixit), who's instantly smitten. Sarat Chandra Chatterjee's 1917 novel Devdas unfolds an epic love triangle likened to that in Indian mythology between Krishna, Radha and Meera. It's been filmed numerous times, though never at this expense. It really needs saying that the Mukherjees consider themselves a class apart from their neighbours, because from all the visual evidence (the families occupy residences of such palatial splendour that the director resorts to fish-eye lenses and daft camera angles to fit them in his frame) you wouldn't guess either was wanting for status.

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