Devdas (Hindi) - Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay (Book).

Devdas (Hindi) - Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay.

Me the miser on cheap book hunt that too in Hindi, found this gem selling on Amazon under 100/- :) and I had picked it for that rainy day which came too early in the form of a classic making me go through a reader's block. My tryst with the legend of Devdas started (Unfortunately) with the Sanjay Leela Bhansali's movie Devdas. Ironically I end up loving the movie for its Dialogues, those lines were literally to die for. Since that day I actually not only wanted to read the classic Bengali Literature and watch the original movie made by Bimal Roy with Dilip Kumar in lead. Guess what, it took me good 17 years I believe to finally achieve that. And I so much regret the same. Finally to come out of the reader's block I picked up this one in Hindi and what a mind-blowing book it turned out. No wonder I hated the man :) for destroying his own life and breaking the heart of so many amazing people who loved him till his last breath. One huge mistake and all of their lives go for a toss. But I must say that this is my second Sarat Chandra book which I have read back to back (with Parineeta) and he has definitely gone on top of the respect ladder in my heart and joins his contemporaries like Premchand, Tagore and even my personal all time favorite Satyajit Ray (who I would rate a little lower than all of them, please no brickbats) I am only talking about the Writing. On top of that imagine if a translation is making me say all that, how terrific would be the original Bengali edition. I sometimes wonder why we all have to grow old get burdened with so many responsibilities. If I was still in school or college (dependent on my parents) I would have learned at least Bengali and French for starters to read and watch so many movies respectively.

Devdas and Paro's amazing love story right from the childhood is so heart touching, right like the way even they do not realize when it goes to the next level, the reader too gets hooked to their simple care a damn life styles, dependent on each other for so many daily things was totally one of the best stories that I have ever read. The way Devdas the brat treats her, but she too is no less as she always takes a revenge on him one way or the other but later she always regrets her decisions whereas Devdas is totally different and aloof I would say, he actually never looks back at her. The reason why they fall out and that is the biggest mistake of his life which leads to the heart-breaking end. Sarat Chandra's story telling is so amazing I must say that he gives us not only three important characters but even the support cast in story is totally amazing. I loved the way Devdas' man servant standby him and never leaves him, the way they part had me totally choked with tears falling from my eyes. That was one of those rare moments from the story where I actually felt that Devdas too had a heart after-all especially the way he treats Paro throughout, the fallout, re-unions and the finale. Chandramukhi comes in his life like a breath of fresh air, it is read to be believed as who comes in whose life in reality. Is it Chandramukhi who kind of saves Devdas or is it him who bails her out of a courtesan's life, truly terrific. So far the movies that I have seen, show us a different picture altogether in comparison to what and how Author does it in his story. The sea of change in the three lead characters, the situations, the cross connections, love, affection, pain, sacrifice, regret and so much more is covered so subtly that my words and feelings will do no justice to how actually I felt while going through the story. I will not call it a depressing story but super emotional it indeed is and I again had that helplessness feeling while reading through the character's lives that I so much wished they did what I imagined them to do get some happiness in their life. But of-course the Author has his own ideas.

The totally surprising thing that I found out after reading the terrific book is that, Sarat Chandra claimed himself that he wrote the entire story in an inebriated state and he was ashamed of the same hence it took him good 17 years to let it go for publishing. Check the connection ;) it took me 17 years to read the book ;).

Movie Adaptations: The book is adapted so far 19 times and I have seen at-least three versions so far. Bimal Roy (1955), Sanjay Leela Bnahsali (2002) and Anurag Kahsyap (2009). Last week right after I finished the book, I got the Bimal Roy's Devdas and not only me but my kiddo and wifey too fell in love with Dilip Kumar for the way he played the character with elan, simply outstanding. The way Suchitra Sen did the Paro's character and Vyjayantimala played Chandramukhi, legendary it was, totally amazing experience and it was totally magical in black and white. The story is so gloomy at times that the movie being in black and white actually helps and makes more sense. I was so lost in the movie, story and characters that my kiddo actually reversed the movie quite a few times and told me to notice the camera work and long shots done by Bimal Roy, that was totally outstanding. In 1955, the way he moved his camera and took so many long shots and it's cinematography was top notch. Let's not even talk about the music, dialogues, costumes and other stuff. As I was reading the book a day prior to us watching the movie, I actually pakaoed my family with so many lines that I wanted to read aloud with full emotions, fortunately they let me do my theatrics and as we watched the movie, every time those legendary lines came alive from the mouth of an actor they both were looking at me with smiles on their faces. Not one line that Bimal Roy missed in the movie which was there in the book, this movie without doubt is The best adaptation ever that I have seen which satisfied the reader in me to no end that someone actually made a movie like that without missing almost nothing from the book. Yes, he did take a few cinematic liberties but that much benefit of doubt I will let him have it. After watching Bimal Roy's version we tried the 2002, Sanjay Leela Bhansali's movie too and within 20 minutes into the loudest, shrillest, brightest (almost made me go color blind), exaggerated and the most comical movie ever, we all jointly decided that is better to remove it from our database, not worth it at all.

PS: The most poignant scene of the movie which actually never happens in the book that stopped my heart for a few seconds is such a big spoiler that I wouldn't like to put it here, ask me and I will tell you about it, if you have read the book and seen the movie too.