• Souvik Datta

Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s Devdas (1917) needs no introduction, being perhaps the most acclaimed and frequently adapted among his works. Enlisted among various limits and liberties exhibited by their screen adaptations in Hindi is the depiction of the two women featuring in Devdas’ life. This is because the films diverge in their depiction when compared to the literary original. All five film adaptations of the novel showcase their heroines with innovative touches, particularly in terms of characterisation. Chattopadhyay’s composition of Paro and Chandramukhi is largely incongruous with the filmmakers’ envisioning of them. Unrestricted by notions of temporality, contextualization or contemporaneity, this ‘revisional’ portraiture and its reasons deserve attention. Questions of audience acceptability and appeasement may well have been privileged over fidelity. Additionally, was this a corrective measure on their part, seeking to ‘empower’ these women far more than the author did? The paper seeks to locate these answers and raise further questions, utilising the centre margin theory. Are varying portrayals products of ensuing socio-temporal conflicts between the ‘grand narrative’ of a ‘patriarchal centre’ and the ‘social periphery’ inhabited by women? Moreover, what are their implications? Do these conflicts plunge the reader/viewer into a dilemma, unable to negotiate between affiliations to the original text, and a body of films nearly on the brink of a ‘postmodernist breakthrough’? How does this challenge the contemporaneous representation of women – does it indeed counter the ‘violence’ caused through metanarratives like these? This discourse is sought to be inaugurated.

Literature, Cinema, Intertextuality, Centre-Periphery, Women, Postmodernism.

"Rooted Text, Uprooted Women – Interrogating the Periphery via Devdas’ Heroines in Hindi Cinema", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.8, Issue 9, page no.c219-c227, September-2021, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2109225.pdf

"Rooted Text, Uprooted Women – Interrogating the Periphery via Devdas’ Heroines in Hindi Cinema", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.8, Issue 9, page no. ppc219-c227, September-2021, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2109225.pdf