21 Years Of Devdas: Sanjay Leela Bhansali Female Characters Were More Visible For Us

Sanjay Leela Bhansali directed the epic love drama film Devdas in 2002. Mega Bollywood, Bharat Shah's production company, handled the production. Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai, Madhuri Dixit, and Kirron Kher play the main characters, while Smita Jaykar, Vijayendra Ghatge, and Kirron Kher play supporting parts.

The plot of Devdas Mukherjee (Khan), a wealthy law graduate who returns from London to marry his childhood friend Parvati "Paro," is based on the 20th Century Bengali novelist, Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's 1917 novel of the same name. But his spiral into drunkenness and subsequent emotional degeneration prompt him to seek sanctuary with the kind-hearted courtesan Chandramukhi after his own family rejects their marriage. 

Devdas was listed by Richard Corliss of TIME magazine as one of the top ten movies of the millennium in 2012. Despite not being nominated for an Academy Award (the year before, Lagaan had earned India its third and final nomination for a foreign language film), it was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Film Not in the English Language. It received numerous National and Filmfare Awards at home. Even now, watching the movie again on Star Gold causes heated debate at the dinner table. it has been 20 years since Bhasali came out with Devdas. 

Sanjay Leela Bhansali Female Characters

An Indian director, screenwriter, and music composer, Sanjay Leela Bhansali is well-known for his work in Hindi cinema. He has won numerous honours, including a BAFTA nomination, ten Filmfare Awards, and five National Film Awards. The musical romance Khamoshi, which he directed for the first time in 1996, won Bhansali a Filmfare Award for Best Film (Critics).

With the hugely popular “love triangle” Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999) and the historical romance Devdas (2002), which was nominated for Best Film Not in the English Language at the BAFTA, he later earned enormous celebrity and prominence in Hindi film. He received numerous Best Director Awards, Best Film Awards, and additional Best Film (Critics) at Filmfare Awards for the drama Black (2005), which became one of the most well-liked and honoured Hindi films. He has received numerous National Film Awards for Devdas and Black, but although his later works Saawariya (2007) and Guzaarish failed to continue his success (2010), the women in his films have always stood out.  

Gangubai

The focus of the film was the life of Gangubai Kothewali, a strong and divisive woman who gained the title of "Madam of Kamathipura" in the 1960s. Parts of her life are known because of a chapter in S Hussain Zaidi's best-selling book Mafia Queens of Mumbai that is devoted to her. S Hussain Zaidi is a former investigative journalist. In the movie, after a rocky start, Gangubai gained influence thanks to her ties to the Mumbai mafia. She ran a number of “pleasure quarters” in the city's red-light district and finally acquired the title "Madam of Kamathipura." She was the only proprietor of a brothel at the time to drive a black Bentley. Gangubai was renowned for having compassion for other local ladies due to her own experiences. She believed that her job forbade anyone from abusing her and utilised her influence to fight for sex workers' rights and their strength. She reportedly even spoke with former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru about the issues sex workers faced.

Devdas

One of the key figures in Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's 1917 Bengali novel Devdas is Chandramukhi. Her persona was modelled by Meera, a mystical Hindu vocalist who dedicated her life to Lord Krishna, just as Chandramukhi did for Devdas. This is one of the very few words Devdas' character speaks to Chandramukhi before bidding her farewell in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's masterpiece, Devdas. The ethos of Chandramukhi is well encapsulated in these lyrics, which roughly translate to "I'm calling you the embodiment of tolerance, and watch how you're melting like wax at my words!" She is portrayed in every adaptation as the courtesan with a golden heart who devotedly looks after Devdas despite his initial hatred and rage against her. Through her unrivalled acting talent, Madhuri Dixit Nene portrays Chandramukhi with awe-inspiring conviction, bringing to life a strong yet kind woman.

Black

Some remain while others vanish. For those who entered Bollywood in the beginning, that is how things have gone. But what's impressive is that they manage to make a huge influence in whatsoever subject they pick, despite being just loosely related to this dynamic industry. Michelle McNally, a crippled teenager who finds comfort and support in her teacher Sahai, was represented by Rani Mukerji in the film Black. Special appreciation always goes to Ayesha Kapoor who aced the film as a child artist. 

Suggested Reading: Alia Bhatt’s ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’ Becomes Most Watched Indian Film On Netflix

Guzaarish

Guzaarish, a film by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, came out in 2010. Hrithik Roshan played a quadriplegic man who was formerly a master magician in the movie, while Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was his “obedient” 12-year nurse. Despite the film's inability to achieve the enchantment it set out to, the picture-worthy aesthetics of each scene managed to draw in the audience, who were disappointed by the generally unimpressive quality of the movie.