Devdas to Dev.D: A Journey of a Modern Man

Abstract:

There are at least nineteen films in different Indian languages on this novel Devdas by Sharadbabu. This is what Eco distinguishes between types and tokens (Eco, 1976).  The last film entitled ‘Dev.D’ (Kashyap, 2009) released in February 2009. No one has claimed that the film is based on the classic Bengali novel Devdas (Sharatchandra, 1917). But, everybody knows that the film is about Devdas, on the basis of the characters, setting and story. Now, the twist is, the Devdas is living in 21^st century, and he is not Bengali, and the majority of the film is in Delhi and not in Calcutta.

The director of the film, Anurag Kashyap, made a statement, “the tragedy of Devdas was due to the absence of communication, but what will happen in the situation like the present time when you have abundance of communication.” Of course, there have been many differences between original text and the modern film, the type and the token. Which kinds of compromises are possible in order to put Dev in 21^st century? Why is it necessary to change the time and space dimensions in order to look at the text afresh? Kashyap played a magic with the characters, plot and story of Sharadbabu, and presented something brand new, that suits the modern world and 21^st generation, because our questions and issues are different from Sharadbabu’s Devdas. The present paper will try to compare the film with the novel, keeping communication at the centre. Paper will also try to evaluate and justify the interpretation of ‘Devdas’ in modern sense. Paper, primarily, compares two forms - the novel and the film - and tries to discuss the differences in the media.

Key Words: Token, Type, Structure, (Post)Modern, Time, Space.

“[E]very age has its own carriage, its expression, its gestures.”

– Baudelaire (2003: 100)

1.

There are many films based on novels. But, many films from a single novel do not happen very regularly. There are at least nineteen films in different Indian languages on this novel ‘Devdas’ by Sharadbabu. As long as I know, there are nine films in Bengali and three films in Hindi based on this novel. This is what Eco distinguishes between types and tokens (Eco, 1976). In 2009, one more film based on this novel was released. The film is directed by Anurag Kashyap, entitled ‘Dev. D’. No one has claimed that the film is based on the classic Bengali novel ‘Devdas’ (Chattopadhyay, 1917). But, everybody knows that the film is about ‘Devdas’, on the basis of the characters, setting and story. Now, the twist is, the Devdas is living in 21^st century, and he is not Bengali, and the majority of the film is in Delhi and not in Calcutta. The film was based on novel, but it presents something more than novel, or it could be said that the film questions the novel itself.

Eliot remarked that “[interpretation is] only legitimate when it is not interpretation at all, but merely putting the reader in possession of facts which he would otherwise have missed.” (quoted in Gardner, 1984: 11) The paper will try to present the film with special reference to the novel. It will also stress the ‘signature’ of the director and his approach to the book, its evaluation and his perception and presentation of present day society.  The paper provides the necessary background information for the film in order to understand and evaluate the film better.

2.

I would like to mention the Auteur theory here, as both the Authors - Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay and Anurag Kashyap – have a specific impact on the overall genre, and their signature is visible in their various works, including the present works, which becomes a very important issue in film analysis (Brooker, 2003: 15). Sharat Chandra is an author in traditional sense, but when we talk about films the director, and not the story or script writer, is the author of the text.

Sharatbabu is one of the best novelists of Bengali language; his novels like ‘Pareenita’, ‘Charitrahin’, ‘Grihdaha’, ‘Pather Dabi’, etc. are some of his most famous novels. His works were generally about the human relations and the relations across the gender. Present novel ‘Devdas’ is the glaring example of his typical theme, human relations. Sharatbabu’s other novels are better written than ‘Devdas’, but ‘Devdas’ is one of the most famous, largely because it was adopted for films. As mentioned above, the distinction between types and tokens becomes important here. The novel is a type and the films, dramas, serials, etc. based on the type are called tokens. As Appignanesi and Garret (1995) put, “The more Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’ becomes a poster cliché, the more you have to pay for the original.” Here, the more tokens you have the type becomes more important. The novel discusses the issues of class distinction, love, prostitution, etc. On the other hand, the director of ‘Dev.D’, Anurag Kashyap¹ is actively working in Hindi film Industry from last ten years, but he received recognition from his film ‘Black Friday’. He made his first film in 2003, which is not yet released; the film’s title is ‘Paanch’. Next film he made was ‘Gulal’, which was released in 2009, after the success of ‘Dev.D’. ‘Gulal’, again, talks about an unorthodox subject of ‘Rajputana’ and the politics. His third film, ‘Black Friday’ (2004), was based on the 1993 Bomb Blasts of Bombay, where he presents realistic perspective on terrorism and politics. The film was based on a non-fiction, by Hussain S Jaidi. His next film was ‘No Smoking’ (2007) for which he receives international recognition of most creative film of the year. But the film was box office failure. In the cartoon film, ‘Return of Hanuman’ (2007), he took up the issues of pollution and global warming, and satirized the consumerist society. Next, he took up the project on ‘Dev.D’, the concept of ‘Dev.D’ was suggested by Abhay Deol, who played the role of Dev in the film; ‘Dev.D’ (2009) received critical acclaim and attention of the audience.

3.

The title of the film is ‘Dev.D’, and in the entire film the central character is referred to as Dev. D of the title refers to Dev’s surname, Dhillon. In the interview on the TV, the director of the film, Anurag Kashyap, made a statement, “the tragedy of Devdas was due to the absence of communication, but what will happen in the situation like the present time when you have abundance of communication.” When Devdas was written², the situation was very different. One of the major themes in ‘Devdas’ was miscommunication or absence of communication in a relationship. "In this era of SMS that wouldn't work," explains Kashyap. "Today my Dev and Paro are in touch regularly. The miscommunication here is due to the ego. Also alcoholism was a major issue back then.”³ Today’s Dev faces different problems, and not just class distinction.

4.

Traditionally, tragedy is considered as a fall of protagonist from high status to lowest possible status or nothing, like we have examples from Shakespeare, or the novel ‘Devdas’ itself is a good example of tragedy. But, there is one requirement, and that is protagonist. What if you do not have a protagonist or hero? Our concept of hero is that he should be embellished with all the virtues, and solves all the problems in the end. As Freud writes, “The rational grounds for heroism rest on a judgement that the subject’s own life cannot be so precious as certain abstract and general goods” (2003: 83). In novel, Devdas could not stand the problems and ultimately dies. But, in the film ‘Dev.D’, we have three central characters; in fact three short films are presented with overlapping and interconnected storyline. First story is of Paro, who likes her childhood friend Dev and ready to do anything for him. But, when Dev ignores her out of ego, she happily marries to another person who is a widower with two children. She is happy with her new life which she exhibits by dancing in her own marriage, at the end of the story she is happy. Second story is about Chanda, which started as a story of teenage school girl Lenis, then her nude MMS, and she had to leave India, she married to one Indian, who died. She comes to Delhi where she finds herself in sex-business. But, she accepts the situation and manages her living in those conditions; she earns a lot, and enjoys her life as Chanda. Third and last story is of Dev, who fell in love with Paro, had relations with other girls, and started staying with Chanda, drinks and smokes a lot. He killed some people in car accident, but finally he realized that he will have to take care of himself. If he keeps drinking like this, he will die like a dog on the road. He accepts the situation and restarts his life, where the film ends.

Here, the film gets a twist, it does not accept the tragic end of the story, and thus it does not remain a tragedy. One important factor here is the absence of Protagonist, there are characters, and they know that they, themselves, are their own heroes. There is no one else who can save them, except their own self.

5.

Kashyap’s Dev lives in the age of ‘Communication’, he has a different perspective on the world, society and human relations. For him, utility is the very important criteria for any relation. He uses mobiles, internet, car, girls, etc. As McLuhan (1975) puts, these equipments are extensions of human body. Modern equipment like mobile is the extension of tongue and ear, car is an extension of legs. And in this rush of consumerism, human relations are also extended to marketization. It runs on the principle of supply and demand. We have equipments for communication, external communication is very easy. Apart from communication mobilization is also an important aspect, the characters are free to move and meet each other because of easy transportation. But, the internal communication is lacking, characters resolved that only when they look into their hearts.  As it is well portrayed, at the end of the stories of Paro and Chanda, Dev was unconscious, literally and metaphorically, at the end of Dev’s story he was conscious and aware about the reality.

Society is different today. For Devdas and Parvati, Devdas’ family and class distinction was the biggest enemy. Here, Dev’s father told him that he wanted Paro as his daughter-in-law. He said, “Paro apni hi rahegi” (Paro will be ours only). There was no trouble from the family. His father told Dev that his taste was ruined in London, “whisky ki jagah par Vodka pitaa hai, Chicken ki jagah fish khaataa hai, aur asli aurton ko chhod ke vaans ki sukhi sukhi dandiyo ke pichhe bhaagtaa hai, tera kya hoga?” (you drink vodka and not whisky,  eat fish and not chicken, , likes skinny girls and not the real woman, what will happen to you?). On the other hand, Chanda believes that her video clip was never released, everybody, including her father, downloaded and ‘enjoyed’ the clipping and then, the society declares her a criminal, which is the hypocrisy. Dev never loved Paro or Chanda; he wanted his desires to be fulfilled by any means. He was a jealous person, and could not tolerate anybody in his position. He never cared for his family, as long as he receives money from them. It’s a matter of ego. Dev believed that Paro should remain faithful to him, but once his ego is hurt, he tells her, “manager ki beti, bikhre baal, kapde pahnneka dhang nahi hai, aukat dekhi hai apni?” (daughter of manager, unarranged hair, no sense of clothing, do you know your status?). Dev speaks this in the story of Paro, which was aptly replied by Paro in the story of Dev. Paro comes to meet Dev in his hotel room, she did not allow him to kiss her, she cared for her clothes, and in the end tells him, “teri aukat dikha rahi hu” (showing your status.)

The subject’s ‘desire is for the desire of the Other’ in Lacan’s formulation (1977: 321). The subject, that is to say, seeks both the love and recognition of the Other and to possess the Other.  Here, Dev is the subject who wants to love and possess Paro; he can not tolerate her with anybody else. But, in later part of the text, subject turns into an object. In the consumerist domain he becomes the prey of drugs, alcohol and sex-mafia. He becomes a consumer and Chanda becomes commodity from the human beings. On the other hand, Paro selects well equipped family for her desires o be fulfilled.

6.

In the novel, we have very distinct and well developed characters. Devdas is younger son of a landlord, richest person in the village. Parvati is a childhood friend of Devdas, who lives nearby, and a daughter of Munimji, above all her mother was a daughter of dramatists’ family, and in-laws near house was not considered a good thing at that time. These were the obstacles in Devdas and Parvati’s marriage. Parvati married to an elder man, having two adult children. She used to miss her childhood days, and Devdas. Devdas left his house for Calcutta, and through Chunnilal, he came in contact with Chandramukhi. Here, Chunnilal is a caring friend of Devdas. On the other hand, Chandramukhi started loving Devdas; her story is also briefly mentioned in the novel. She was a widow, and was in this business to survive.

When we talk about film, the situation is different. Devdas is known as Dev in the film. Very close Friend of Dev, Chunnilal, is known as Chunni. Chandramukhi becomes Chanda, who is a foreigner, and her real name was Lenis, but she adopts this name when she becomes the prostitute, following the character of Madhuri Dixit in the earlier ‘Devdas’ by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. Parvati is always referred to as Paro by Dev and everybody else. By such changes in the name, the author is giving them new incarnation in the new world. There are some tribes in the world, where they change the name of the dead person and refer to the dead person by some other name, because in that community saying the name of dead person is considered taboo. (Freud, 1950) This could be taken as the analogy for the changes in the names of the characters. Kashyap is trying to refer them at the same time he wanted to avoid them; he is trying to avoid the provocation of the classic, as tribes used to do. Here, Paro and Dev, both are happy without each other, Chunni is not a friend but a business man, who runs the racket of prostitutes and drugs in Delhi, and he took Dev as Customer and nothing else. For Chanda, also, Dev was nothing but the customer. Above all, Dev never developed any soft feeling for Paro or Chanda. Dev used to get money from his family, till his father was alive. He never asked about any of them, he put his demands and got the things. He asked for the car and got one, and he killed seven people in a car accident. Paro, married to a person older than her, was actually happy, because all her desires are fulfilled in the wealthy family of her husband.

In novel, Parvati never met Devdas after her marriage, except she saw his dead body in front of her house. In the movie, Paro came to meet Dev in his hotel room, they had physical relation, and she cleaned him and his room, and told him that she is actually happy with her husband, because he satisfies her physical needs.  Paro is no longer a silent girl, or a show-piece in the house. Now, she talks about her likes and dislikes without any hesitation. She chats with Dev and sends him her nude photographs. In chatting, Dev’s username was ‘The Dude’, and Paro’s name was ‘Chhammak chhallo’. She beats boys of her village. She is ready for the pre-marital physical relations with Dev. And when Dev is not ready to accept her, she happily marries to another person, and dances in her own marriage. After marriage, also she comes to meet Dev in Delhi, and informs him about her happy sexual life with her husband.

In ‘Devdas’, Chandramukhi was a prostitute, but that was a different time and they had a different designation. They used to be good singers and dancers, which was their main source of income. Chanda has her own story which is well treated in the movie, she is not just a prostitute, she has been referred to as ‘Sex Worker’ or CSW (Commercial Sex Worker), she works for blue films, she is engaged in Phone sex, etc. But, she is happy with whatever she is doing, she readily accepts that she is a sex worker, and also says that “randi bolnaa out of Fashion ho gaya hai” (prostitute word is out of fashion, now). But apart from all these, she is doing college as well. She is a prey of MMS film. When she was in school, her boyfriend took her nude clipping, because of which her family had to leave their house. Then, she was married to a person who died, and she left for Delhi, where unknowingly she enters into sex racket. But, she is not ashamed of it, and she happily accepted the situation. In the novel, both Parvati and Chandramukhi were ready to do anything for Devdas, they loved him. But in ‘Dev.D’, everybody was concerned with their personal requirements.

Dev is also different from Devdas. Dev returns from London because he has seen nude picture of Paro, and he wants to achieve that body. He drinks, he takes drugs, but he also wants car and mobile. He wants to have physical relations with Paro, but he never denies other girls. He leaves Paro, because he has heard about her relations with other boys in the village. He does not say “me tumse pyaar karta hu” (I love you), rather he says, “me tumse pyaar karna chahta hu” (I want to love you). When Paro asks him “log pyar karte hai, ‘pyar karna chahna’ kya hota hai?” (people love, what is this want to love you?), on which he replies, “make love to me.” This was his real motive in Paro, but when paro hurts his ego, he throws her out of his room. He is a modern man who wants to achieve everything.

‘Dev.D’ is a film about the post-modern man, who has lost his destination and motivation. There is a song in the film “kaha chali gayi hai Saali khushi”, in which “saali” is an abusive word used as the modifier of happiness, i.e., “khushi”. This is the problem with all the modern man, they are looking for happiness, but it is a kind of illusion. Above all, they do not know what happiness they actually want to achieve. They do not know which thing in the world can make them happy. Dev does not know whether he loves Paro or her body. He had sexual relations with other females as well. He wanted to keep everything at his exposure. One night after drinking he calls Chunni, and says, “Chunni, ladki chahiye” (Chunni, I want girl). Chunni provides him girls and liquor. He met sister-in-law of Paro, Rasika, with whom he had physical relations and asks her about Paro, because of which she refused to talk to him. The posters give the tagline “come fall in lust”, we have heard of falling in love, they are asking us to witness the fall of characters in lust. The posters clearly present the condition of Dev, he has to select from Paro and Chanda, but he selects alcohol, cigarettes and drugs.

7.

The novel form describes the characters, and develops the story through the characters. The form of movies portrays the characters. The character of Dev becomes interesting because we have Devdas to compare with, and yet it appears to be real. Kashyap and Abhay Deol’s reading of the novel becomes important, their modifications in terms of time and space make it real and comprehensible, and above all we can identify the characters. No heroes are available to save or to advocate virtue, accept the reality and face it. No doubt, Sharadbabu’s ‘Devdas’ is one of the best examples of classical tragedy, it will be remembered through the Post-modern ‘Dev.D’.

Notes:

1.      One can get the information from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anurag_Kashyap_%28director%29

2.      ‘Devdas’ was actually published in 1917.

3.      From http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/features/2009/02/02/4801/index.html

References:

Appignanesi, Richard & Garret, Chris (1995) Introducing Postmodernism. London: Icon Books.

Baudelaire, Charles (2003) From ‘The Painter of Modern Life’ in From Modernism to Postmodernism. (ed.) Lawrence Cahoone. Oxford: Blackwell.

Brooker, Peter (2003) A Glossary of Cultural Theory. London: Arnold.

Chattopadhyay, Sharat Chandra (1968) Devdas (Tr. Ramanlal Soni). Rajkot: Pravin Pustak Bhandar.

Eco, Umberto (1976) A Theory of Semiotics.  London: Macmillan.

Freud, Sigmund (1950) Totem and Taboo (Tr.) James Strachey. London & NY: Routledge.

_____ (2003) Our Attitude towards Death in Civilization, Society and Religion. New Delhi: Shrijee’s Book International.

Gardner, Helen (1984) In Defense of the Imagination. Oxford: Claredon Press.

Lacan, Jacques (1977) Ecrits: A Selection. (Tr.) Alan Sheridan. London: Tavistock.

McLuhan, Marshall (1975) Understanding Media: The Extension of Man. London: Routledge & Keagan Paul Ltd.