DEVDAS: Classism, Performance & Melodrama

In the 2002 adaptation of Devdas, writer/director Sanjay Leela Bhansali uses melodrama to tell a tragic love story. The film uses elements of melodrama: evocative sets, extensive camerawork, archetypal characters, and an emphasis of extreme human emotions. The film is focused on class conflicts and pride, two themes that feature heavily in classical melodrama. In this article, I plan to analyze class conflicts in the film, especially regarding the four principal female characters: Parvati (Aishwarya Rai), Chandramukhi (Madhuri Dixit), Kaushalya (Smita Jaykar) and Sumitra (Kirron Kher).

Sumitra and Kaushalya, and their subsequent role reversal
These two women are the matriarchs of the film, and their domestic power rules the film. This is the key for melodrama--whereas men often hold the power in westerns, film noir and other genres, the women are the agents of the melodrama. The husbands, Neelkanth and Narayan, may wield power but their cluelessness about what is going on reveals that they rely on their wives. Sumitra and Kaushalya (and other female figures) have the ability to make change in their households.

Kaushalya represents the rich, repressed upper class, Sumitra, the lower liberated class. Kaushalya has to worry about her social status, but Sumitra only sees her daughter and her daughter's happiness. Their friendship was probably honest and genuine when Devdas and Parvati were kids and the threat of a marriage between them was low. But now as adults, their childhood friendship is turning into romance and Kaushalya (goaded on by her daughter in law Kumodh) puts a stop to it.

When Sumitra is humiliated after 'Morey piya,' the story shifts into high melodrama. The following scene is a raw and powerful confrontation between the two classes. Sumitra reveals the vulnerability beneath her happy go lucky persona and calls out Kaushalya's privilege and hypocrisy.

"Every play has two acts!"

Sumitra vows to marry Parvati to a man even richer than Devdas, and she succeeds. She says, "Every play has two acts! In act one, my daughter and I danced. Now, you and your son will dance!" Dancing is equated with the lower class and humiliation, a theme explored below. And Sumitra's vows come true. Parvati becomes the woman with the highest title as she marries a Thakur. Sumitra by extension does too. And Devdas becomes an unmarried, self-destructive drunk. Kaushalya faces financial ruin, as her husband dies and his estate is hotly disputed. First Kaushalya was upper class and Sumitra the lower class. Then Sumitra rises and Kaushalya falls.

Smita Jaykar's facial expressions in this song are hysterical FYI.

The link between Sumitra and Chandramukhi
Though these two characters never meet, they are linked together in the film by being performers. Sumitra descends from actresses or nautangis. Though it is unclear whether Sumitra was actually an actress or just comes from them, she becomes a performer through the "Morey piya" sequence, where she dances in front of Kaushalya. Sumitra lowered the status of her husband Neelkanth through their marriage, but the film heavily implies they had a love marriage.

Chandramukhi is also a performer. We never see Chandramukhi take any clients, though her poetry indicates she's somewhat educated and the familiar tone she takes with men suggests she has some stature as a courtesan. Her profession keeps her in the fringes of society, but in a way it also liberates her. She is independently wealthy and famous for her musical talents. If actresses are of a lower class, then courtesans take that further. Chandramukhi becomes the Sumitra if Parvati becomes Kaushalya.

Sumitra and Chandramukhi feature in two separate but comparable dance sequences, both of which are big performances and lead to climactic confrontations about upper class hypocrisy.  Both "Morey piya' and 'Dola re dola' are under the gaze of judging eyes. Because if expressing yourself is looked down upon, then these two joyous dance numbers reveal their dancer's lower class upbringing. Both characters have a connection because of a line that Devdas' father says to Parvati "why don't both you mother and daughter open a brothel?" 'Morey piya" and Chandramukhi's intro song "Kaahe chedh chedh mohe" are also thematically linked--the lyrics to both songs basically tell the same story about Radha and Krishna at the lake.

Parvati the performer
I've said that performance in Devdas is reserved for the lower class. But what happens when the woman with the highest status in the movie, Parvati the Thakur's wife, performs? Parvati's sole actual performance is "Dola re dola" and we discount "Silsila yeh chaahat ka" since it's not a performance for an actual audience. So "Dola re dola" is a brilliantly directed dance sequence. There are so many things going on narratively in the song. Parvati and Chandramukhi solidify their feminine bond. First, Kaushalya and Sumitra start as friends and end as rivals, then Parvati and Chandramukhi start as rivals and end as friends.

But let's look at the context of the song. It takes place at a Durga puja, and yet Parvati and some random friend are singing a love song about some guy--the lyrics get more romantic as the song goes on. The dance puts Parvati under the judgmental gaze of her stepdaughter and stepson-in-law, recalling Kaushalya in "Morey piya."

Parvati reveals her inner emotions to people who probably would not appreciate her debasing herself by dancing publicly. The focus on classism in the performance is clear. The stepson-in-law Kalibabu just can't wait to reveal the actual whore Chandramukhi and the figurative one Parvati to the crowd, including the Thakur himself. And we shouldn't forget that Kalibabu's status does not change by his association with Chandramukhi (we've seen him at both of her other performances). Only Parvati gets locked up in the mansion because of her relationships with Devdas and Chandramukhi.

I've embedded the video for 'Dola re dola' below. And though I'm sure many of you have seen it, try not to focus on Aishwarya and Madhuri. Instead pay attention to the camera. Look at how the camera flies around, catching Ash and Madhuri as they dance around the room. Bhansali shoots the song as a series of long takes and his editing is economical. He cuts away to the audience only when he has to for the narrative, but Parvati and Chandramukhi dance like no one else matters.

This sequence is shot in pure melodrama style, which uses the camera, editing and direction to evoke pure emotions. Devdas has the look of an old school melodrama, like films of the 1950s, and uses it to tell a emotional story about class conflicts. And it also uses the Bollywood tradition of musical numbers to highlight certain hypocrisies among the upper class. Devdas is a pure melodrama, but don't let that scare you.

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