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February 2, 2003
REVIEWS: In the silence of the night
Saratchandra Chattopadhyay is a master story teller. Reading his writing is like listening to a flute played in the silence of the night. The narrative’s simplicity charms the reader. This could be one reason why Devdas, published in 1917, still continues to enthral readers as well as filmmakers. This novel has led to the creation of at least nine movies.
The first celluloid adaptation was in the silent era of 1928, followed by a Bengali film in 1935 with Barua in the lead role. The 1936 remake by Barua starred Saigal as Devdas. Bimal Roy’s production with Dilip Kumar as the hero was a box office hit. Two Telgu versions were made in 1953 and 1974, one Malayalam version in 1989 and another Bengali one in the mid 70s.
Recently, Sanjay Leela Bansali’s Devdas, starring Shahrukh Khan, has familiarised the younger generation to this lovelorn, self-destructive character. A revival of interest in the story seems to have resulted from Bansali’s movie. This can be seen in the recent translation of the novel Devdas from Bengali into English by Sreejata Guha, with Aishwarya Rai, Madhuri Dixt and Shahrukh Khan on the cover.
Sreejata Guha, who has an MA in Comparative Literature from State University of New York at Stony Brook, has done a brilliant job of rendering the text into English. The narrative flows smoothly and complements the simplicity of the plot.
The novel’s plot revolves around four main characters — Paro, Devdas, Chandramukhi and Chunilal. Paro and Devdas are childhood friends. They spend considerable time together until Devdas is sent to Calcutta for his studies. Four years later, on Devdas’s return, Parvati’s grandmother tries to broach the subject of marriage between the two. Devdas’s mother loves Paro and understands the hint, and with “more pathos than derision” in her smile, turns down the proposal as the girl’s family “...was a trading house. And they lived right next door. Oh shame”.
In a week’s time, Nikantha babu, Paro’s father, fixes her marriage with an elderly widower. Paro goes to Devdas in the middle of the night to ask him to marry her. However, Devdas is unable to demonstrate the same strength of character and in the face of parental opposition leaves for Calcutta. During this period, Paro wavers between hope and despair. Until she receives a letter from Devdas saying that “I had never felt that I love you tremendously — even today, I cannot feel any deep well of sorrow in my heart for you. I just feel bad that you will suffer on my account. Try to forget me.”
The moment this letter is dispatched, Devdas realizes he loves Paro. He asks her to elope with him, but now it is Paro’s turn to refuse. From this point onwards, begins Devdas’s self-destructive journey. He embodies apathy, inertia and negativity. His estranged thoughts are such that Camus or Kafka would understand. For instance, on losing Paro, “He didn’t feel terribly sad or tortured. But his chest grew heavy with a sense of cold foreboding: it was as if a part of his body had suddenly succumbed to paralysis, and when he found it unresponsive, his bemused mind refused to accept the fact that the familiar limb of his would no longer answer his call.”
He tries to seek solace in alcohol with Chandramukhi, a courtesan who is in love with Devdas. Although he grows to care for Chandramukhi, he leaves her. On the verge of death, Devdas travels to Parvati’s house, as he had promised her. However, he arrives in the middle of the night and dies without seeing her.
In Devdas the theme and treatment are influenced by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s writing but presented in an easier and more matter-of-fact language. Devdas becomes more memorable because the characters seem real. Saratchandra didn’t give detailed descriptions of personalities or appearances. Instead, like a Japanese painting, with a few strokes an exquisite image is created, and blanks are left for the reader’s imagination to complete.
The characters are also believable because Chattopadhyay plucked them from his own life experiences. During his childhood, Saratchandra’s playmate was a girl named Paru and Rajendranath, a friend in Bhagalpur who introduced him to alcohol, tobacco and dancing girls, appears as Chunilal (In Srikanta, Chattopadhyay’s autobiographical novel, Paro appears as Rajlashmi and Rajendranath as Indranath).
A person reading Devdas after watching the latest version of the movie is in for a surprise. The simplicity and lack of ostentation of the novel is in sharp contrast to the opulence shown in the movie. Sarat Babu once said, “My literary debt is not limited to my predecessors only. I’m forever indebted to the deprived, ordinary people who give this world everything they have and yet receive nothing in return, to the weak and oppressed people whose tears nobody bothers to notice ...good things remained well outside the sphere where my sight remained imprisoned. This poverty abounds in my writings.”
One wonders how he would have reacted to the fact of his novel being turned into one of the costliest movies of Indian cinema. Behind the glitz and glamour of the stained glasses, gigantic chandeliers and exotic costumes, the simple charms of Devdas the novel are lost. Maybe it is a reflection of the modern times, that the sound of the flute is not considered adequate and an entire orchestra is required to awaken the deadened soul. Aesthetics and literary beauty of the Bengali milieu lies in its austerity and simplicity of expression to communicate reality. This is why the novel Devdas retains artistic merit till its melancholic end.
Devdas
By Saratchandra Chattopadhyay
Translated from Bengali
By Sreejata Guha
Penguin India. For more information log on to
www.penguinbooksindia.com
ISBN 014302926-6
128pp. Indian Rs99
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