Director – Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Cast: Shahrukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai and Madhuri Dixit

This is the third Hindi film based on the novel DEVDAS by Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay, 1917. Devdas was nominated for BAFTA and India’s submission to the Oscars , it was also screened at Cannes Film Festival. Devdas won the Filmfare Award for Best Film. The film also won five National Awards and ten Filmfare Awards.

This film was the most expansive movie at that time. A whopping 50Cr INR was spent on the film in 2002 which was huge amount for that time.

Let’s get back to the film, it is a love triangle between Devdas, Parwati and Chandramukhi. Devdas and Paro (Parwati) are childhood friends and Paro is the reason for Dev’s father to send him to London to keep them apart. Paro belongs to a lower caste and Dev’s father is hell bent on keeping them away. The film beautifully talks about a painful love story set in an era where caste and class were reasons enough to cause riots. We see how they try to convince their families which obviously does not lead to any success. The film is a heartbreaking and an emotional roller coaster.

Hat’s off to the direction, Devdas shows us one of the best performances by all the actors in the film. Oh, Shahrusk’s charm and personality! We all want that Shahrukh back, don’t we? Aishwarya and Madhuri portray their roles with equal grace. Both the ladies mesmerized us with their performance. Also, it was a pleasure to watch Jacky Shroff in the role of Chunni Lal. No actor could have brought the role to existence with such force.

A very interesting thing to note in the film is how each of the main chahcter was introduced. A recognition with sound was created instead of focusing directly on their faces. This helped to build a curiosity and also added to the essence to the film’s nature.

Apart from the acting, the music (produced by Ismail Darbar and Monty sharma), which took two and half years to produce, made the film more interesting and suited its pace, both in terms of lyrical and background score. Mostly while watching Indian films, the songs feel misplaced and often break the reverie of the film, but in Devdas, they added on the mood and were as mesmerizing as one could want them to be.

Did you know? During the filming of the song “Dola re Dola”  Aishwariya Rai’s ears started bleeding due to the heft of the ear rings she was wearing.

Apart from the dynamic presence of Aishwarya and Madhuri, who felt really comfortable in each other’s presence there was an extra duo of Shahrukh and Jacky which equally entertaining.

Every scene in the film felt different from the other as there were so many colours which made the movie interesting and timely without changing a lot of costumes. Dev’s costume were just white traditional Dhoti-Kurta whereas the ladies had some really gorgeous outfits with vibrant colour and tone.

When watching the film, one can’t ignore the extravagant set of the film. Owing the set-up, the film felt a lot more close to its time period and its theme.  

That Chandramukhi’s kotha alone cost Rs 12 crore and it was constructed around an artificial lake. The water in the lake kept drying up, so gallons of water had to be regularly filled in. A temple city surrounded the set, for which inspiration was taken from the Dilwara Temples in Rajasthan.

At the end, one can say this is one of the best films Bollywood has ever produced. It is worth of 3 hours of time with your partner and have box of tissues to wipe the tears from your eyes.

It’s a heartbreaking tale of love. It also tells there is not always a happy ending.