Dev.D

Devdas, written by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay and published in 1917 in Kolkata, is one of the classics of Indian literature. It has been adapted for the silver screen more than a dozen times across the years, but my favorite version is Dev.D (2009).

Paro scandalizes at her wedding

Director Anurag Kashyap approached the well-known story with a very specific vision. Dev.D is aggressive and flashy and loud. The music is hip and the retelling emphasizes that the story is as modern as it was in 1917. Boy (Dev, played by indie star Abhay Deol) goes to the city and gets confused, girl (Paro, played by the radiant Mahie Gill) stays behind and pines. Boy blows chance with girl. Girl marries someone else in revenge. Boy goes to city and destroys his life while sex-worker Leni/Chanda (Kalki Koechlin in her first Hindi role) falls in love with him.

Dev is not a nice character, and he is not nice to the women in his life.  He is a hypocrite about sex who doesn't believe women when they contradict something he hears from a man. He sinks into a life of debauchery, drugs, and self-pity when he is too proud to admit his mistakes, and eventually commits manslaughter. And it is still more uplifting than the original.

The India of Dev.D isn't nice to women either.  Paro, who is sexy and smart and angry, is undervalued by her family and Dev, and lashes out with violence, plainspoken cruelty, and by marrying an older man she doesn't love.

Leni and Dev

India is cruel to Leni as well. This is the first version I have ever come across in which Chanda gets a real back-story- in this case, based on a sex scandal from 2004 involving two students. Leni, a 17-year old student, is caught in a web of societal hypocrisy. Her father is so shamed by the publicity he kills himself. Sent to the country until the scandal dies down, Leni refuses to be exiled. Shunned by family and friends when she returns to Delhi, Leni turns college student by day, sex worker by night. Her refusal to apologize, to feel shamed, to curl up and die- Leni is an amazing character. She builds a life for herself in the brothel, and is doing fine until Dev comes along. Leni's story is told with sensitivity and humor, and a recognition that she is a survivor. The scene in the swimming pool, in which Chanda recounts to Dev her father’s reaction to her scandal, and Dev repeats to her the words she wishes her father had said to her is intimate and sad. Why either women cares about Dev is a mystery- although to his credit, by the end of the film it is also a mystery to Dev.

Dev and SRK as Devdas

Throughout the film Kashyap cleverly references 2002 adaptation of Devdas, a masala version starring SRK, Aishwarya Rai Bachan, and Madhuri Dixit. Leni takes her professional name Chanda, from Chandramukhi, the tawaiff in Devdas after watching "Maar Dala" the most famous song from the hugely expensive and popular 2002 version.

By the time Devdas was published in 1917, the Indian film industry was already established. The first filmed version of Devdas was released in 1928. I have not been able to track that down, but the 1935 and 1936 versions are on youtube.  Guru Dutt's classic Pyaasa (1957) is also based on the story. For more information about classic Indian cinema, please see the National Film Archive in Pune. For a discussion of the history of Delhi's red light district, please see "A search for Old Delhi’s courtesans reveals a present that’s not always comfortable with the past", by Ranjana Dave.

Film: Dev.D (2009)

Delhi's Red Light District

Director: Anurag Kashyap

Writer: Anurag Kashyap, Vikramaditya Motwane

Language: Hindi, English, Punjabi, French, Tamil 

Country: India

Run time: 144 min 

Producer: Ronnie Screwvala