Novel
Devdas
দেবদাস
Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay · 1917
Synopsis
Devdas, the unruly son of the wealthy zamindar of a village in Bengal, grows up beside his neighbour Parvati, whom he calls Paro, the daughter of a more modest family. Expelled from the village school after one prank too many, he is sent to study in Calcutta. When he returns, the two children have become young people who love each other; but Devdas's family opposes the marriage, and the young man's hesitation tips their two lives over. In Calcutta, he will meet the courtesan Chandramukhi.
Context
Written in 1901, the novel remained in the author's papers for sixteen years: as late as 1913, writing from Rangoon to his friend Pramathanath Bhattacharya, he said that he had written it drunk, that he was ashamed of it and considered it immoral. Bhattacharya nevertheless obtained permission to publish it in his journal, Bharatvarsha, before the volume edition of 30 June 1917. Naresh Mitra brought it to the screen as early as 1928, as a silent film; Pramathesh Chandra Barua made a sound version of it in 1935 in Bengali, then in Hindi and Assamese, and his cinematographer, Bimal Roy, filmed it in turn in 1955.
Who it is for
A short novel, in Bengali, of about two hundred pages in translation; its many film adaptations have made it a story familiar to many readers.
Prizes and reception
The non-epic narrative most often brought to the screen in India, in Bengali, Hindi, Assamese, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam.
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