September 8th: DEVDAS (Sanjay Leela Bhansali, 2002)
A man from a wealthy family is forbidden to marry the woman he loves due to class division.
The Indian film industry is the largest in the world in terms of films produced, despite the relatively small amount of international distribution and impact. "Bollywood" is the name given to the mainstream majority of works made in Mumbai and in the Hindi language. Known for their high production values and elaborate song and dance numbers, they eventually began influencing Western filmmakers as well as those in Asia.
Rising director Sanjay Leela Bhansali had only made two films when he took on the project of adapting the classic Bengali novel Devdas, which had already been produced for the screen over 10 times in various Indian languages going back to 1927. This would mark the first time it was filmed in color.
Bhansali worked on the script with two other writers, and also helped to compose the songs for the film, a process which took over two years. The elaborate sets designed by Nitin Chandrakant Desai and made to recreate early 1900s Calcutta cost over $6 million, with one requiring 12,000 pieces of stained glass and another lit with 5,000 light bulbs.
Cast in the lead, title role was Shahrukh Khan, considered one of the biggest and wealthiest movie stars int he world, and referred to as the "King of Bollywood". Opposite him is Aishwarya Rai, former Miss World pageant winner and star of Bhansali's previous film, for which she won an assortment of Best Actress awards. Also in the cast is the hugely popular and acclaimed actress Madhuri Dixit.
Unlike modern Hollywood musicals, the actors do not do their own singing, and the performers selected to perform the songs are highlighted in the press and have their own awards and fanbases. The singers in Devdas include Shreya Ghoshal, Kavita Krishnamurthy, and Udit Narayan. The musical score was composed by Ismail Darbar. The actors are expected to learn numerous and complicated dance numbers, here choreographed by Saroj Khan.
The film opened to great critical acclaim and would become the highest-grossing film of the year in India. It had significant wins at the Filmfare, National Film Awards, Star Screen Awards, Zee Cine, and IIFA awards, with Khan, Rai, Dixit, Bhansali, Ghoshal, Desai, Khan, and Krishnamurthy all awarded multiple times.
Abroad it also saw much financial success. It was the first modern Bollywood film to be screened at the Cannes Film Festival, and received a British Academy of Film and Television (BAFTA) nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. In 2012, Time Magazine's Richard Corliss included it in a list of the Top 10 films of the millennium so far.
Running time is 3 hrs.
Unlike modern Hollywood musicals, the actors do not do their own singing, and the performers selected to perform the songs are highlighted in the press and have their own awards and fanbases. The singers in Devdas include Shreya Ghoshal, Kavita Krishnamurthy, and Udit Narayan. The musical score was composed by Ismail Darbar. The actors are expected to learn numerous and complicated dance numbers, here choreographed by Saroj Khan.
The film opened to great critical acclaim and would become the highest-grossing film of the year in India. It had significant wins at the Filmfare, National Film Awards, Star Screen Awards, Zee Cine, and IIFA awards, with Khan, Rai, Dixit, Bhansali, Ghoshal, Desai, Khan, and Krishnamurthy all awarded multiple times.
Abroad it also saw much financial success. It was the first modern Bollywood film to be screened at the Cannes Film Festival, and received a British Academy of Film and Television (BAFTA) nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. In 2012, Time Magazine's Richard Corliss included it in a list of the Top 10 films of the millennium so far.
Running time is 3 hrs.
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