2011

School of letters

M Phil Theatre Arts

Rahul Rajan

Seminar

[ DEV D: CONVERGENCE OF CINEMATIC TECHNIQUES AND

NARRATIVE]

Director:Anurag Kashyap . Cinematography: Rajeev Ravi. Original

Music: Amit Trivedi Stars:Abhay Deol, Mahie Gill and Kalki Koechlin.
 Dev D: convergence of cinematic techniques and narrative

About the movie:

Dev D is the Adaptation of Sarat Chandra's Chatterji’s (15 September 1876 -

16 January 1938) Bengali romance novel 'Devdas' by writer director Anurag
Kashyp. He took great freedom and placed the characters to the present day
India. 'Devdas' gets a modern twist here, a fresh and exciting tale of love lost
and self-destruction. Classically Sarat Chandra's Devdas has been hailed as
the ultimate lover who drowns himself when he loses his love and goes onto
the path of self-destruction. Kashyap's 'DevD',on the other hand, proclaims
Dev as a man who could not stand up for himself. Dev, Paro and Chanda of
'Dev D' reflect the sensibilities, conflicts, aggression, independence, free
thought, excitements and recklessness of the youth of today. A generation
that is jammed between Eastern roots and Western fads. 'Dev D' is set in the
rustic and colorful Punjab and also explores the dingy, morbid, dark
underbelly of Delhi. The movie itself is a change since the director took
complete freedom from the original text during the adaptation process. The
movie has to be studied at multiple levels. The narrative pattern of dev d is
network narration and also episodically. The director isn't aiming at an
emotional connect with the hero, but instead trying to alienate you from him
entirely since we are seeing Dev from multiple perspectives. The film's 18-
song soundtrack is the spice to the narrative. Before going to a detailed
analysis of Anurag’s version a quick glimpse to original Devdas is necessary.

Plot summary of original ‘Devdas’

Devdas is a young man from a wealthy Bengali Brahmin family in India in the
early 1900s. Paro (Parvati) is a young woman from a middle class Bengali
family belonging to the “merchant” caste. The two families lived in a village
in Bengal, and Devdas and Paro were childhood friends. Devdas goes away
for thirteen years to live and study in a boarding school in the city of
Calcutta. When, after finishing school, he returns to his village, Paro looks
forward to their childhood love blossoming into their lifelong journey
together in marriage. Of course, according to the prevailing social custom,
Paro's parents would have to approach Devdas' parents and propose
marriage of Paro to Devdas as Paro longed for. When Paro's mother makes
the proposal to Devdas' mother, the latter insults her, plainly saying that
the marriage is not possible in view of her own higher caste and financial
status. To demonstrate her own social status, Paro's mother then finds an
even richer husband for Paro. When Paro learns of her planned marriage,
 Dev D: convergence of cinematic techniques and narrative

she stealthily meets Devdas at night, desperately believing that Devdas will
quickly accept her hand in marriage. Devdas meekly seeks his parents' 3
permission to marry Paro, but Devdas' father agrees with his wife. In a
weak-minded state, Devdas then flees to Calcutta, and from there, he
writes a letter to Paro, saying that they were only friends. Within days,
however, he realizes that he should have been bolder. He goes back to his
village and tells Paro that he is ready to do anything needed to save their
love. By now, Paro's marriage plans are in an advanced stage, and she
declines going back to Devdas and chides him for his cowardice. She
makes, however, one request to Devdas that he would return to her
before he dies. Devdas vows to do so. Devdas goes back to Calcutta and
Paro is married off to the betrothed widower with children, who is still in love
with his previous wife and is therefore not interested in an amatory
relationship with Paro. In Calcutta, Devdas' carousing friend, Chunnilal,
introduces him to a courtesan named Chandramukhi. Devdas takes to
heavy drinking at Chandramukhi's place, but the courtesan falls in love
with him, and looks after him. His health deteriorates because of a
combination of excessive drinking and despair of life—a drawn-out form of
suicide. Within him, he frequently compares Paro and Chandramukhi.
Sensing his fast-approaching death, Devdas returns to meet Paro to
fulfill his vow. He dies at her doorstep on a dark, cold night. On
hearing of the death of Devdas, Paro runs towards the door, but her family
members prevent her from stepping out of the door. The novella powerfully
depicts the prevailing societal customs in Bengal in the early 1900s, which
are largely responsible for preventing the happy ending of a genuine love
story.

Characterization in Dev D:

In an interview Mr. Anurag Kashyap said that they took only the Devdas
concept. To be precise he only borrowed the adjective ‘Devdas’. The
concept, ‘Devdas’ has no individual existence. The character survives only in
an environment where the other two characters Paro and Chandramukhi
exists. The character Devdas is universal and hence We can trace love lost
men in every society in every generation. here comes the ‘IF’ factor. If the
love-lost hesitates to move on and decides to live a sadistic life, then there
will be a chandramukhi waiting for him. So the Devdas exists only as a trio.

We all know that Characterization arises from the place where where the
story occurs or staged. in Dev D Anurag Kashyup planted the characters to
the present day Punjab whereas in original Devdas it was placed in Calcutta
in 1900. So the Devdas of 1900 won’t fit well to present and hence what we
need is an absolute rework on the concept and that’s what Anurag Kashyup
did. He got into the very inside of the characters and took what was only
essential and reframed them to the narrative plot he created, which is very
new Indian cinema.
 Dev D: convergence of cinematic techniques and narrative

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Abhay Deol as Dev D

In the movie, Devdas is portrayed as Dev and he is shown as the Son of a

rich industrialist. when he was 12 he was sent away to London. Dev returns
to his hometown and to Paro after twelve long years. Though they seem
inseparable, a momentary rush of blood puts their lives in a tizzy. Paro is
married off to someone else and Dev goes into severe depression. Not one to
take on responsibilities for his acts, Dev digs deep into drugs and alcohol for
salvation. He stays away from home but his finances still come from a doting
father. An escapist instinct and a massive ego leads him into an aimless
search for lost love that pushes him further into an abyss of darkness and
hopelessness.

Mahi Gill as Paro

Dev's neighbour and childhood friend Paro is a free spirit riding high on the
life with nothing but an indestructible faith in her Dev. That faith is shattered
in a major turn of events, and she is resigned to marry an older man with
children. Paro picks up the threads of her life and moves on and she hopes
Dev can do the same.

Kalki Koechlin as Chanda

chanda (Leni) likes to live her life on the edge - a rich student with
hyperactive hormones and thirst for adventure. After a devastating MMS
scandal she is abandoned by her family and forced into isolation. As a
runaway she finds shelter with Chunni, a pimp. With great determination and
inner strength she adopts new life as Chanda. As Chanda she gets to be a
high profile escort by night while Leni remains as a college student by day.
With Coke in her head and money at her disposal, Chanda/Leni lives life on
her own terms.

Convergence of cinematic techniques:

Narratives are present in every art form and in cinema narration is the
backbone. We experience cinema by the way it conveys the information.
Sometimes it can be entertaining and sometimes informative. Both types
need narrative structure. In dev d a lot of cinematic techniques are derived
to create a unique narrative pattern. Almost every shot adds a certain
amount of information to the continuing story in a way or another. In some
 Dev D: convergence of cinematic techniques and narrative

case it is the dialogue, sometimes it is the background score and at some

5
times it is the cinematography that takes on the duty of narration.

We all know about the classical 3 Act structure. In Dev D we can trace more
than one 3 Act’s since Dev D has not one plot, but three. It’s because the
story is told told as three different stories. More specifically we see and
understand Dev d from three perspectives. One is of Paro then of Chanda
and then we see Dev’s Perspective. The three plots of Dev d are:

1. Paro and Dev growing up together, falling in love and breaking up

2. Lenny’s life falling apart and her becoming the prostitute Chanda

3. How Chanda and Dev meet and fall in love.

Let us examine the techniques devised by director to build up Dev D.

1. Mannerisms to characters

Remaking a classic is never easy and Kashyap’s Dev D succeeds in doing so,
especially for reinventing the classic Hindi movie heroine. A few innovative
moments are especially worth mentioning:

• Paro and the mattress on the bike: portraying an Indian woman, maybe
for the first time in Indian cinema, as a strong and sexual being;

• Paro at the water pump – never before has a Hindi film heroine been
shown in this fashion, the angry and wild Paro is new to Indian cinema.

• an angry Paro beating up her brother-in-law and chasing him through

mustard fields;

• The ‘I don’t care’ attitude of Dev.

• The bold decision that Leni takes in her life.

• The ‘lust’ of all characters is shown very clearly.

2. Plot points:

Plot points are the evolving situation in a script which can act as a
twist or a turning point in the narration. In Dev D we encounter with a
lot of ‘classic plot points’ of Hindi cinema and also of the original texts.
But to the surprise even though they emerge and we sense a twist but
 Dev D: convergence of cinematic techniques and narrative

they go in low pitch and new plot points arises which are signifiers of
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changing attitude of Indian’s to their life.

Eg:

• We expect a melodramatic scene between mother and kid

Devdas when his father orders him to go abroad.

• Paro’s father acts so sensible on both time when he finds paro

and dev together.

• The split between Paro and Dev is very calm.

• Dev’s father was supportive to paro’s love.

• The MMS scandal is shown with less build up.

• Leni accepts her transformation with ease.

• The reaction of rasika when she realizes that dev approaches her
only for sex.

3. Music , lyrics & BG

The two strongest departments to come out of this movie are

cinematography and music. The background score, songs and theme music
are so spliced up that it is difficult to separate each other. Dev d has highly
‘content packed’ 18 songs but it never distracts audience from the narrative,
but only adds to the effectiveness. The music is well crafted by Amit Trivedi.

Lyrics:

The lyrics of each song are informative in a sense that it is filled with
emotions and feelings that characters possess. This magic occurs due to the
apt placement of songs. For example, after confronting her ex, Paro leaves
the hotel, in slow frames, hiding her sorrowful eyes with sunglasses; to the
tunes of saavan barse... same is the case of all other 17 tracks. The songs
add spice to the narrative. The lyrics are so powerful that they raise the
scene to next level and their by building the plots for the story to move on.
The instruments used and the ‘tunes’ generate the emotion and raise the
scene. Sometimes it’s typical classical Indian type, sometime it is Punjabi
and sometimes it’s the heavy rock beat. In a nutshell, when dialogue stops,
lyrics take up the narration. At no place narration is stopped or deviated.
 Dev D: convergence of cinematic techniques and narrative

4. Cinematography
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The mood lighting and colour patterns devised by cinematographer Rajiv
Ravi for the movie sets the emotions and mood to scenes. The colour tones,
camera movements, frame speed and lighting patterns change according to
the mental levels of the characters and the situations they face in their life.
The pink light up in the room of Chanda , the pale green lights for Dev’s
deteriorating life, the cool colour pattern devised for abroad and warm colour
pattern for India and the shadow lighting for the dark streets of Delhi plays
their part in narration.

5. Flash backs and flash forwards

Flash backs are very often used in Indian cinema but flash forwards are used
less. Anurag uses these techniques very well in the movie. The introduction
of Abhay Deol in the movie is a quick lash forward. The three stories have
certain common points or they intersect at certain points throughout the
movie. We thread all these information’s in a collective way throughout the
movie. The MMS coming from chunni is such a scene. It is completed in two
episodes, one in Chanda’s and other in Dev’s.

6. Use of props

Properties are the second level of information passers in a narration. This is

not meant for all but it can also convey director’s inner feelings along with
the character’s situation mental stage and the turmoil in which the character
is caught in. the shot were leni is shown reading Alberto Moravia’s novel
‘Contempt’ is cunningly placed by the director. The dialogue by grandmother
of leni says that the English books that she reads are spoiling her. In the
narration it fixes completely and it moves on. But this novel has certain more
importance because the plot of novel is similar to the movie Dev D.
Contempt or Il Disprezzo (A Ghost at Noon or Contempt)is a 1963 film
directed by Jean-Luc Godard, based on the Italian novel Il disprezzo (1954)
by Alberto Moravia.

The plot of the novel

An American film producer hires a director to direct a film adaptation of

Homer's Odyssey. Dissatisfied with director’s treatment of the material as an
art film, the producer hires another novelist and playwright, to rework the
script. The conflict between artistic expression and commercial opportunity
is the major point of the novel. This can be traced as a fear that director had
while making this movie.
 Dev D: convergence of cinematic techniques and narrative

In nutshell:
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Anurag Kashyup, with his brilliant narrative skills and ability to tap the
narrating possibilities , succeed in converging narrative possibilities of
different departments to the main narrative structure and their by making
Dev D, a new trend setter in Indian Cinema and also a perfectly crafted
movie for watching.

Devdas (1927 film), directed by Naresh Mitra, starring Phani Sarma as

Devdas, Tarakbala as Paro, and Niharbala/Miss Parul as Chandramukhi.

• Devdas (1935 film), directed by P.C. Barua, starring himself as Devdas,

Jamuna as Paro, and Chandrabati Devi as Chandramukhi.
• Devdas (1936 film), directed by P.C. Barua, starring K.L. Saigal as
Devdas, Jamuna as Paro, and Rajkumari as Chandramukhi.
• Devdas (1937 film) (in Assamese), directed by P.C. Barua, starring
Phani Sarma as Devdas, Zubeida as Paro, and Mohini as
Chandramukhi.
• Devdas (1952? film) (in Urdu), directed by ?, starring Habib Taalish as
Devdas, Nayyar Sultana as Paro, and Shameem Ara as Chandramukhi.
• Devdas (1953 film) (also known as "Devadasu") (in Tamil and Telugu),
directed by Vedantam Raghavaiah, starring Akkineni Nageswara Rao
as Devdas, and Savitri as Paro.
• Devdas (1955 film), directed by Bimal Roy, starring Dilip Kumar as
Devdas, Suchitra Sen as Paro, and Vyjayantimala as Chandramukhi.
• Haath Ki Safai, a song in the movie is about the play Devdas with
Randhir Kapoor as Devdas and Hema Malini as Chandramukhi.
• Devdas (1979 film) (also known as "Debdas"), directed by Dilip Roy,
starring Soumitra Chatterjee as Devdas, Sumitra Mukherjee as Paro,
and Supriya Choudhury as Chandramukhi.
• Devdas (2002 Bengali film), directed by Shakti Samanta, starring
Prasenjit Chatterjee as Devdas, Arpita Pal as Paro, and Indrani Halder
as Chandramukhi.
• Devdas (2002 film), directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, starring
Shahrukh Khan as Devdas, Aishwarya Rai as Paro, and Madhuri Dixit as
Chandramukhi.
• Dev.D (2009 film), a modern day and loosely-derived take on Devdas
directed by Anurag Kashyap, starring Abhay Deol as Dev, Mahi Gill as
Paro, and Kalki Koechlin as Chanda.
• Devdas (2010 Pakistani film), directed by Iqbal Kasmiri, starring
Nadeem Shah as Devdas, Zara Shaikh as Paro, and Meera as
Chandramukhi.
 Dev D: convergence of cinematic techniques and narrative

• Devdas 2011 ( Bangladeshi film) directed by Chachi Nuzrol Islam,

starring Shakib Khan as Devdas , Apu Biswash as Paro , Moushumi as 9
Chandramukhi.