Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s 2002 adaptation of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s Bengali novella Devdas is one of the most melodramatic ever. The sumptuously designed and extravagantly emotional film is now being re-released in 3D. The tragic love triangle, starring Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Madhuri Dixit, will be back in cinemas on July 12, which marks the movie’s 15th anniversary.
The movie is being retrospectively converted to 3D, as was Sholay (1975) a few years ago. “When I was finally convinced about the 3D version of Devdas, I wanted to make sure that every frame conveyed just the right proportions and dimensions,” Bhansali told the DNA newspaper. “I realised that much of my film was originally shot with a lot of depth in the frames. That, in fact, made Devdas an ideal candidate for the 3D format.”
There are some who will argue that Devdas is already three-dimensional in terms of its story treatment even before the technological upgrade. Bhansali’s glossy blockbuster gathered a massive fan base, but purists were aghast at the overwrought version of the nineteenth-century text. The 3D version will bring admirers even close to the tragic love story between Devdas (Khan), Paro (Bachchan) and Chandramukhi (Dixit). The breast-heaving, hand-wringing and copious weeping will have an even greater impact than before.