A metaphoric odyssey...The journey of Devdas!

The journey of Devdas

The three principle characters have been modelled on the classic love tale of Radha-Krishna and the devotion of Meera. There are direct as well as metaphorical references to the same. In the song, Morey Piya while Devdas and Paro make love, the background score speaks about the Raas Leela between Radha and Krishna. Also, the very presence of an idol of Lord Krishna in that room in Chandramukhi’s kotha where Devdas lives, metaphorically establishes her as the Meera of the story. Her devotion for Devdas and the unconditional and largely unrequited love which she showers upon him are both representations of the unconditional faith which a million devotees place in the Gods who may or may not bless them.

In one of the dialogues, Chandramukhi mentions the distinctions between the three most commonly used words for Love in the Hindi language, viz. Pyaar, Ishq and Mohabbat. Pyaar atma ki parchhayee hai (Love is the shadow of the soul). This to me is the character of Paro, whose life is dedicated to Devdas and thus she becomes a reflection of his soul. Ishq eeshwar ki ibaadat hai (Love is to worship God). This is Chandramukhi, who venerates Devdas to the extent of worshipping him. Mohabbat zindagi ka maqsad hai (Love is the purpose of life). This is Devdas, the lover, the lovelorn, whose aim in life was love, who devoted his life for love, who died for his love.

The opening scene of the film is a fully blossomed Gulmohar tree as everybody in the scene is extremely ecstatic about the fact that Devdas is going to return after ten years form London. The tree here indicates the blossom which his presence will bring to the family. When his grandmother asks him if he did get the imported watch she asked for, he replies that he hasn’t got that but has brought good times. And the current situation in the Mukherjee household is indicative of the fact that he has come as a messenger of good times.

The preparations for his welcome are on in full swing, but there is one person who is extremely unhappy about everything, though she pretends to be happy about it. This is Devdas’s sister-in-law, Kumud who probably is simply jealous about the attention which Devdas gets, which her husband doesn’t or is probably weary of losing out on the property to Devdas. The direct references to both the probabilities are shown in the proceeding scenes. It is an Indian tradition to have the Aarti to ward off all the evils, with the pious flame, the blessings and all other auspicious symbols. It is here when Devdas’s mother insists on being the first one to see him while he gets down to meet his childhood sweetheart, Paro. The dialogue here by Kumud is Ab to Paro ki nazar lagegi uspar. (Literally – Paro will see him first. Metaphorically – She will cast her spell on him, with her evil intentions.) Immediately after everybody’s exit, she blows off the Diya. This is supposed to be an extremely inauspicious thing to do, especially when someone is to enter the house. Metaphorically the audiences are convinced that this is the signal of the evil, and that everything won’t remain as hunky dory as it seems.

Parallel to this, when Devdas and Paro meet, one can see red footprints of Paro, as her feet are soaked in the red water. This is the Indian tradition when the bride enters her new house with such footprints. Indirectly the director conveys here that she is the bride to be for Devdas, and her love, her husband to be has arrived. Without revealing much about the actual relationship, these red footprints just establish the extent of the relationship between the lovers. While hiding form her lover, Paro is being teased by a bee. Devdas enters and she collapses with embarrassment. In his playful stint of teasing her, he mentions about the growth in her, and her maturity. There she says Agar saagar saamne ho to jharne ko nadi banane mein kya der lagti? (With the ocean right in front, it doesn’t take much time for the stream to turn into a river.) Here she not only mentions the significance he holds in her life, in terms about being a source of inspiration for her growth, but also corroborates the fact that the ultimate destination of her life is to be one with him, just the way a river finds her ultimate destination by getting assimilated into an ocean. On another note, Devdas can actually be looked at as the ocean of love, Paro being one of the rivers culminating into him, while another river Chandramukhi, flowing somewhere is on her way to be there. In the end when she refuses to show her face, Devdas just catches hole of the bee and says Tumhein koi aur chhue yeh mujhe achha nahi lagta. (I don’t like it when somebody else touches you.) The bee here is an implied reference to the fact that he can’t tolerate anyone else being there in her life, and is a direct manifestation of the possessiveness in the love of this man. It is somehow difficult to decipher whether Devdas loves Paro more than what she loves him. But this stint of possessiveness, firmly establishes the classic masculine love, which can be manifested in this fashion. There is a tinge of violence in his tone, his expressions and the manner in which he catches hold of the bee, as if he were to squash it to death for troubling Paro.

The tiff with Kumud is on, and so is the romance with Paro. In one of the instances while he is making fun of Kumud, Devdas and his grandmother mention that a Neem leaf though soaked in honey is still bitter. Again without speaking much about her directly, this one sentence summarises the character of the lady and explains that irrespective of the layers of added sweetness the core bitterness always remains. Immediately after this, he pays to visit to Paro to give her the symbolic Kangan, which is the family’s traditional set of bangles which are given to the bride to be, as a welcome gesture. The dialogue there by Paro is Agar chudiyaan utarna nahi jaante to kangan kya khaak pehnaoge? The metaphor for taking off the bangles is with reference to the act of love making, and kangan pehnana is indicative of the nuptial signals that come as a consequence in the Indian tradition.

Life is just a bed of roses for the lovers, when reality strikes, and Devdas’s mother publicly humiliates Paro’s mother for getting the marriage proposal. In one of the dialogues, she speaks about the bones which come along with the fish they eat, and the tact that they know which lets them enjoy the fish sans the troubles which the bones would cause. Paro and her family are referred to as the bones in this sequence, basically the unwanted portion.

In the proceeding scene when Paro visits Devdas secretly, the guard in his house asks her about who she is. Her answer is Main. The simple use of me in place of her name in this sequence indicates two things. One, she is trying to hide from the Paro within her on one level, whose family has been insulted by Devdas’s family, but she still loves him unconditionally. In fact one of her friends does question her about the same in the previous conversation. The other meaning of Main here is the fact that her identity at that moment isn’t Paro, it isn’t the daughter of Neelkanth and Sumitra Chakravarty, it isn’t the love of Devdas, but it is just that of a human being, a soul, a person. This can be interpreted as a way of running away from all bondages, or simply a soul search, a journey of self-discovery, because her most nurtured dream, her cherished love, her existing life at this point is on the rocks.

While giving Devdas her reasons for being there at 2 am in the night, she says Nadi saagar se milne kyun jaati hai, Surajmukhi hameshaa Suraj ki taraf hi kyun dekhta hai. Again the reference to the ocean has the meanings which have been discussed already. When she calls him the sun and herself the sunflower, one figures out that her existence is totally dependent on him, he is the source of light, the source of life for her. The discussion doesn’t lead to any decision and she is forced to leave, again insulted this time by Devdas’s father, who calls her a prostitute. She runs away from the scene, insulted, humiliated, while her shawl falls down. She had covered herself with this shawl while visiting him. The fall of this shawl can be compared to the shedding of the layer of the skin in the snakes, when the new skin appears. Similarly now a new chapter in her life is about to begin. Also, the shawl had been used as a covering to protect, to shield the pride of her family. In the Indian belief system, the women represent the pride of the family (Ghar ki izzat) and any harm to them, any insult to them is the easiest way to insult the family. Many of the traditional symbols used to emblazon the married woman, viz. Sindoor, Mangal-Sutra etc. are indicative of the fact that this woman belongs to a family and there is someone to take care of her, protect her and destroy every evil that rises against her. This patriarchal depiction of women has been used in this sequence. On her return, Paro’s mother slanders her for going there with the pride of the family, and returning without it. This pride in the form of the shawl becomes the symbolic representation of their love and separation for Devdas, and he treasures it in his box of memories.

After all the drama, the lovers finally separate as Devdas concedes to his family’s wishes. He is extremely upset, unhappy and dejected when one of his friends takes him to a brothel where he usually goes to get rid of his sorrows. This is where Devdas first meets Chandramukhi and hates her like completely. Throughout his life, he has never seen a woman like this. He can’t define her neither as a mother, nor a sister, nor a wife, nor a friend, and thus according to him, since she is none of the above, she is a prostitute. Here the definition of a woman’s existence solely from the perspective of her relationships with the various men in her life is a metaphor for the prevalent patriarchy in the society. His hatred has two effects on her. On some level she is challenged to make him like her, and on another level, she is intrigued by and attracted towards this man, who is probably the first one who has looked beyond her anatomy and mentioned about the woman within her, the human instinct within her. He has in some way triggered a thought in her, which may be the first milestone in her journey of self-discovery. It doesn’t take much for him to say, and she is swept off her feet and is in love with this man, who has nothing but a cold shoulder and bitter words to give her as a reciprocation of her love.

The moment Chandramukhi enters the scene, a mirror breaks. It is believed in the Indian tradition that the breakage of glass is auspicious. Devdas’s entry into her life probably signifies that, which is conveyed through the broken mirror. Also, if we consider Chandramukhi herself as a mirror, Devdas can’t see his reflection in it, and thus the initial dynamics of their relationship are immediately conveyed through the breaking mirror. The next reference in this scene is to the ritual of putting kaajal again as a protection to ward off all the evil eyes. Similar to the previous mention of the same phrase, the pun here is on nazar lagna and dekhna.

After his interaction with Chandramukhi, Devdas is reminded of Paro and thus returns, but at a wrong time. It is now her wedding night. After a verbal tiff with Paro, the hapless lover hits his love with a pearl necklace right on her forehead. The mark according to him is a symbol of their love. This daag signifies several things, which will be discussed in greater detail later.

The defeated lover is on a journey of self destruction. In the course of his journey he comes in touch again with Chandramukhi.

Devdas

An angry, petulant, slightly immature and crazy lover, Devdas has defined the archetype of the Indian lover on Indian celluloid. In his adaptation of the classic novel, Bhansali altered the personality of the character to suit the times, and the personality of Shah Rukh Khan. A barrister from London, Devdas here represents the western charm which probably everyone else around aspires for. His demeanour, his words all are indicative of the same. In one of his interactions with Paro, he calls her ganwaar which simply indicates the level of refinement which he has achieved because of his stay and education in London.

His anger is an important element of their relationship. In the same scene, when Paro plays a prank on him; which he doesn’t approve of he throws the plate away. This plate throwing act is basically used to establish his anger, his immaturity and his way of treating problems. He can be looked at as someone who doesn’t solve the problems but throws them away. Life has bigger problems in store for him, but with them, before he could throw them away, life throws him into a series of situations, where he is rendered helpless and ultimately defeated. Another place where his arrogance surfaces very strongly is when he throws money at Chandramukhi for taking her of him while he was sick.

On Paro’s wedding night, she speaks up against him probably for the first time. When the metaphoric references to his angry behaviour of disapproval ultimately end, he hits her with the necklace. The mark eventually does become a metaphor for their love.

Paro

Parvati, fondly referred to as Paro throughout the story, is a strong woman, whose identity on some level is defined with the identity of her love, her lover, her life, Devdas. On her wedding night her mother mentions that from now on everyone would refer to her as Parvati, and not Paro. The change in name is a metaphor for the change in her identity, which now would be devoid of Devdas.

When Devdas officially decides to end their relationship and sends her letter to that effect, she burns it. The visual of this fire coincides with the announcement that her in laws to be have arrived, and so the fire in the scene can also be interpreted as the holy fire in the Yagna. This fire however is symbolic of Paro, her inner self, her love for Devdas, the fire which actually fuelled the Diya she lit for him ten years ago. Paro is more like the flame in her own Diya, which when teased can actually be the turbulent, violent fire and burn everything that touches it. The letter by Devdas is just a symbol of a several other things which have burnt in the fire, the fire within Paro.

Paro is married to a man much older to her, who can’t get over his first wife and thus there is celibacy in their married relationship. This is perhaps to indicate the purity of her love for Devdas, which still resides in her heart, her soul. Somewhere she is like the Diya, which is being fuelled by the oil, but though the flame gets its light from this source it can’t directly touch it.

The Diya

Diya jalakar intezaar karo to jaanewala jaldi aata hai, is Paro’s belief and thus she ignites a Diya when Devdas leaves for London. This Diya is a metaphor for her love which she has nurtured thoroughly over the years. The flame has witnessed every moment which she has spent in his memory, every moment in her life, her joys, her pain, her anguish. It is a symbol of Devdas for her, as she doesn’t refer to it as an inanimate light, but calls it Devdas, she shares her emotions with it, and she speaks with it. The brightness of the flame is a reflection of Paro’s emotional power, and her love for Devdas, it is a metaphor of her inner flame, her strength, her dedication, her love. When her mother-in-law once attempts to extinguish it, the child woman in Paro just through her expressions conveys how much the Diya means to her, and that she would go to any extent to protect its flame, her refutation here is again a proof of her love.

The Daag

The second symbol of the eternal love between Devdas and Paro is the mark on her face which he has given her as a parting gift. This mark is a symbol of Devdas’s existence within Paro. Again like the Diya, this is another symbol of her love, which she nurtures forever, the way she puts it has now made her more beautiful, it has made her complete. Apart from the intangible manifestation of Devdas in her life, which is the Diya, this Daag is a more palpable symbol of Devdas’s existence in her life, her body, her soul, her self. In the post marriage catharsis between the lovers, she asks him to touch her and make a promise. At that moment even he touches this very mark, as even he is aware of his symbolic existence within her through this mark.

Chandramukhi

Log to Devdasi bhi kehte hain humein says Chandramukhi when Paro visits her. This dialogue largely summarises her character. Devdasi can be interpreted in several ways and Chandramukhi is all of these interpretations that one can make. She is like Devdas in a way, she is like his shadow, so Devdasi; she is like a dasi to Devdas, who would do anything for Devdas, so Devdasi; just like the actual Devdasis who serve the temple she serves for her temple of love, Devdas, so Devdasi; and also the fact that the prostitutes are termed as Devdasis, so owing to her profession, she is a Devdasi.

The literal translation of Chandramukhi can also be looked at as someone whose face resembles the moon, or someone who always faces the moon. In either case, her name signifies a person who is dependent on the moon. Apart from this attribute of her beauty, Chandramukhi is actually the moon in Devdas’s life. Just like the moon gets the energy from the sun and shines bright, Chandramukhi derives her light, her energy, her inspiration, her love from Devdas. Paro on the other hand can be like the sun for Devdas, the source of his light, his life. Thus, the life of Devdas is incomplete without either of them. Devdas in effect becomes the earth, which revolves around the sun, while the moon revolves around it. As for the second meaning of someone who faces the moon constantly, Devdas is now Chandramukhi’s moon, and she looks up to him, looks at him, can’t live without him.

Bhansali wished to showcase Chandramukhi as a queen, because according to him she is someone with a heart of gold, and thus her surroundings should also exhibit the grandeur which she possesses within herself. Chandramukhi enters the scene in the story as an angel, who helps the wounded lover heal his wounds for some time, and is willing to offer everything that she has in order to help him out and make him feel better. Thus, in her first appearance she is wearing pure white, which metaphorically conveys her piousness, the purity of her soul and the angelic role which she is supposed to play in the story.

Chandramukhi may come across as a weak woman, who is offering herself completely to someone who is least bothered to even take notice of her existence, which comes to her, hates her, calls her a paper flower which can only attract the bee for the nectar which it doesn’t have and in effect keep it thirsty, unfulfilled, and unsatisfied. The lack of nectar but apparent existence of the same in this context means the love which doesn’t come easily to a prostitute, who is supposed to only trade love, and not fall in love. But she is a strong woman who speaks her mind. When one of her clients makes a pass at her (Kalibabu saying Nath aap pehen lena, utaar hum denge meaning he would bejewel her with ornaments so that he can take them off while making love to her) she through her expressions signals him to stay within the limits. The ghungroo offered to her by Kalibabu are an indication of the fact that he wants her to dance to his tunes, but she refuses.

When Paro visits Chandramukhi, she is wearing a saffron coloured outfit, which is usually worn by sages. The colour of the outfit in this scene is symbolic of Chandramukhi’s renunciation from the profession and the beginning of a journey of true love. In this scene when Paro sees an idol of Lord Krishna in Devdas’s room it is corroborated that Chandramukhi is the Meera of the story. As a token of appreciation of her love for Devdas, and in a gesture of legitimizing the relationship between the two Paro grants her consent and passes over one of the bangles from the set which was given to her by Devdas. She is now happy that there is someone to take care of Dev and that he isn’t alone. The bangle here becomes a symbol for the person, who is loved by both of them. At this point in time, Chandramukhi’s social status becomes inconsequential, and Paro looks at her as just another human being, and this emotion is verbally summarised by Chandramukhi when she is humiliated publicly. As another gesture of legitimizing the relationship and giving Chandramukhi the requisite social status for the same, Paro invites her for the Durga-Pooja at her place. This invitation is a metaphor for the new friendship, the consent which she has given to the relationship and an occasion to celebrate the joy of loving the same man. When Chandramukhi is reluctant to stay over for the function, Paro convinces her by saying that if they celebrate together, may be their happiness will reach Devdas.

The bangle which was a symbol for Devdas becomes a reference to Paro when he sees it, and then asks Chandramukhi on her views about Paro. Knowing Devdas’s love for her and after meeting her, she defines her as a human form of love itself. He now defines Chandramukhi as a Ghazal, a Thumri, a tear, a candle. She is like the candle, which burns herself to give light to others, she is like the tear, which rolls down and liberates one from the clutches of the pent up emotions, she is like an emotional dumping ground for a tortured soul like Devdas, she is like the Thumri, which marks the beginning of celebration, she is like the Ghazal, soothing and beautiful.

After this dialogue, Devdas finally admits that the two women are like his two eyes and eventually admits his love for Chandramukhi. The epitome of tolerance now breaks down completely. Her long nurtured love has finally been acknowledged, and the two collapse into each other’s arms. The camera pans out now as the image of the lovers gets blurred and the screen is dominated by a fountain. The flow of the fountain is figurative of the love which is flowing at the moment. It is also symbolic of the celebration which Chandramukhi would feel and the happiness would Devdas would. The colour of Chandramukhi’s outfit in this scene is a bright red which gives her the status of his bride and also legally indicates the possibility of the two making love at that moment. In a similar situation before, when the two are about to experience physical intimacy, Dharamdas, interrupts the two, and Chandramukhi comes out again wrapped in a red garment, which she uses then to cover herself.

From being the paper flower to probably another tributary of love to Devdas, Chandramukhi’s selflessness and the devotion of her love helps her liberate the love from the clutches of her profession and ultimately reach the divine.

Silsila yeh Chahat ka

For ten years Paro has nourished the Diya not just with fuel, but with her devotion, her dedication, and her love; and now Devdas is coming back, so the ecstatic Paro is celebrating her boundary less joy. This Diya has spiritual powers and unlike the normal Diyas which would definitely not be able to sustain the forces of nature like wind and rains, this one keep burning right through them, as it has the divine power of love behind it, which will guard it against all evils.

As the opening line says, Paro hasn’t let the series of love end at all, irrespective of the actual absence of that love in her life. She has grown with the Diya and so have her emotions. In one of the lines, she expresses that she was burning in the pains of separation with the flame in his absence. But now she is on the brink of extreme joy and eagerness to see her lover actually, she is overwhelmed and is thus dancing her way to happiness, to completeness, as the one who will fulfill her dreams, her desires, her existence her soul is on his way. From residing in her heart for so long, he is now actually going to meet her.

The very fact that she can dance with the Diya in the rains without causing any harm to the flame, indicates the divine intervention in their love, which is pure and spiritual. Again the traces of the Radha Krishna love story are firmly established in this song. In the end of the song, she takes the Diya to the temple and spreads Sindoor all over the place. The colour red here marks the beginning of the nuptial thoughts in her mind, and by spreading the vermillion all over she is conveying it to the Gods.

Maar Daala

Right at the beginning of the song, Chandramukhi takes off her red dupatta, as Devdas enters the Mehfil. The colour of her garment now is coordinated with the lyrics and is green in colour. The previous red was a signal for the lecherous Kalibabu to stay away, while the green is welcome signal for Devdas. The colour is auspicious in the Hindu belief system. The rawness and the freshness of this colour is a metaphor for the whiff of fresh air which Devdas has brought in her life. On another level, it is a depiction of Kalibabu going green with envy over Devdas.

The words Maar Daala express the extent of joy that she has experienced because of his presence, she could die with happiness. Also they mark the death of Devdas, the soul in him, who is vanquished in the battle of life and lost Paro and now consumes his first shot of the deathly liquid. The agent of his death, the liquor now takes refuge in his body and slowly poisons his system to finally leave him at the mercy of death.

In the verse, Chandramukhi mentions how she has embraced the thorns but it is the flowers which have harmed her. This is truth of her life, owing to her profession, she has always been exposed to the ugly side of life, and she has been the purgatory for other’s frustrations and sorrows. She has indeed embraced the thorns. As she says, she has never had a relationship with the stars or the moon, which are metaphors for the beautiful things in life and their dearth in her own life. Thus the sudden extreme joy has overwhelmed her so much, that she feels she will die with the happiness.

Dola re

A festive occasion, a celebration of joy, of happiness, of love, true love by two women for the same man, one who couldn’t be with him and another who can’t, but still both of them love him and thus the love becomes spiritual in nature and thereby this song aptly comes on the occasion of Durga-Pooja, where the joy of their celebration and in effect their prayers directly reach God.

The new found friendship between the two women is definitely an instance of soul-bonding as the women in their lives are so different socially and emotionally, but they have one commonality, their true and pure almost divine love in the same man, Devdas. He lives within them and in a way they are both representations of his soul. They do make hints at his existence within themselves by talking about how he lives in their jewelry, their Sindoor, their mind, their body, their soul.

The women are dressed almost identically to signify that though they are as similar as chalk and cheese, they are in some way identical to each other as far as Devdas is concerned. In one of the following scenes, Devdas refers to the two of them as his two eyes, which further establishes the similarity. The song is shot in hues of red, with hundreds of dancers. Red here stands for celebration, joy, ecstasy, and of course the Sindoor. The saris of these women are white in colour which signifies the purity and sacredness of the unconditional love, while the frames filled with hundreds of dancers metaphorically indicate that the whole world at that moment has joined them in the celebration.

In the second verse, Chandramukhi refers to Paro as the flower of Devdas’s arms while she calls herself the floor which his foot touches. This metaphor once again establishes the basic Radha-Krishna-Meera framework of their triangular relationship, which is devoid of any sort of malice or jealousy, as it is founded on pure love. Chandramukhi is aware that no matter what she can never take that place in Devdas’s heart which Paro has. In fact it is this unconditional love for Paro which Devdas has makes Chandramukhi realise the extent to which a man can love a woman. Owing to her profession she has never really experienced such love and thus she is smitten by his charm, his love, his devotion and dedication. In effect she ends up devoting her life to him. Paro on the other hand is aware that though she wants to she can’t be with Devdas, and wants the cement the loneliness in his life. In Chandramukhi she finds respite, her pure love assures Paro that Devdas won’t be a loner of she is around. In the songs she directly orders Chandramukhi to never leave Devdas alone and marry him. The Sindoor in this line becomes a metaphor for Chandramukhi’s social acceptance, and also the acceptance of the relationship between the two.

The beauty of the love in this song is its purity, devoid of any other value or judgment based parameters. Paro’s marital status or Chandramukhi’s socially unacceptable profession, neither are treated as a hindrance to their ability to completely love the same man. Thus, there is no competition, no jealousy but only pure love.

Hameshaa Tumko Chaha

The Daag, Paro’s wedding night, Devdas’s repentance, and the celebrations laced with the morbid emotions of separation, with a ray of hope of life beyond each other, which was never imagined by either of the two lovers form the basic metaphors of this song. Just after the main verse, the music sounds like a hundred people yelling in unison. This is traditional feature of the weddings, but the use of this sound in this context is also to mark the commotion in the minds of the lovers who don’t intend to live without each other.

The song begins immediately after Devdas gives her the Daag, on her forehead and she is bleeding. It is her wedding night, and while the background score at this point is used as a substitute for the holy mantras Devdas spreads the blood on her forehead as if he were applying the pious Sindoor which is the classic Indian symbol of the union of the couple, in the eyes of society and in spirit. Further on this mark stays right in place of the Sindoor to indicate that though Paro is now married to someone else, in spirit she is one with Devdas, and this mark is the symbol of that husband of hers.

The couple together undergo the Aarti prior to the wedding. In a way this is to signify that Paro’s mother has given her consent to this spiritual union between the lovers. During the second verse, he offers her the second bangle of the pair, now as a wedding gift. The bangle here plays its usual role in a married woman’s life, but the marriage here is in spirit, though the bangle is real, for the world to see.

The end of a journey

Through the Diya, the Daag, the bangle, the Gulmohar tree and the two devoted women, the director is showing the journey of Devdas, the journey of a soul which had almost died when it was separated form Paro, but the tiny amount of life which existed within the soul was nurtured by the true love of Chandramukhi and nourished by his own emotions and love for Paro. This end is now the end of the physical manifestation of that soul, a thirsty soul, who could never get his love and could never ever love back the other soul in the same way, as she showered immense love on him.

Devdas himself summarises his life in two lines when he says, Apne hisse ki zindagi to hum jee chuke, ab bas dhadkanon ka lihaaz karte hain; Kya kahein in duniya walon ko, jo aakhri saans par bhi aitraaz karte hain. His life is in someway hanging lose. He doesn’t have a fixed destination, a fixed purpose, his life is an endless journey, in which everyone enters exactly the way passengers enter a train and leave it while it still continues its journey, the never-ending journey. Thus the train in the climax sequence stands as metaphor for this journey of his life.

After he consumes the alcohol, the frame shows the train driver adding coal to the fire which drives the train. Again the coal here is the alcohol which is being added to Devdas’s body which burns it further just like the flames in the engine, but gives it the drive to march ahead in the journey to death. In the next scene one sees a glass swinging in two directions, but it reaches neither. This glass is Devdas, and the two directions are Paro and Chandramukhi, who can only witness Devdas waving towards them, but he finally takes neither path but remains hanging in between, stranded, helpless and defeated. These two metaphors have been directly taken from Bimal Roy’s 1950s classic Devdas.

Finally when Devdas is convinced that his journey is going to end, he is reminded of his promise to Paro that he would visit her once before he dies. He has also promised Chandramukhi that he wants to meet himself before he loses himself. The first self here is Paro while the second self is Devdas himself, his physical existence. When she requests him to accompany him on this journey he disagrees and says, Main tumhari aankhon mein apni zindagi bujhte hue nahi dekh sakta. The verb bujhna in this dialogue again refers to the Diya which is Paro’s symbolic construction of Devdas in her loneliness, as her companion.

While he is on his final journey to meet his first self, Paro’s wound starts bleeding. This metaphorically conveys to Paro that her love, her other self, her soul is in some danger. In the middle of the night he is lying right outside her house, on the death bed, but waiting to catch one last glimpse of her, so that his soul is liberated from the prison defined as the body in worldly terms. He murmurs her name to himself, and though she isn’t around she gets a feeling that someone is talking to her. The entire narrative form here on is a talk between the two souls, where the spiritual, the divine plays the communication medium.

In the morning Pooja, when Paro offers flowers to the Gods, the Gulmohar tree under which Devdas is laying drops its flowers at his feet. She isn’t aware of Devdas’s presence outside her house but has a spooky feeling from within about his wellness. Since she can’t ensure anything about the actual Devdas, she goes to her symbolic construction of Devdas, and feeds it with the oil. The food for the Diya again becomes metaphoric here as we see the helpful villagers simultaneously pouring water in the mouth of the dying Devdas. Devdas and the Diya are the same right now; both are struggling for their existence. The oil and water both work as life saving tools in this scene.

When Paro yells at her maid servant to immediately run and call her son Mahendra, who knows the exact details of the stranger outside, the curtain in her hand falls and the entire frame is filled with the redness of the curtain. From being the colour of joy and Sindoor at several places in the narrative, red here becomes the colour of danger and comes as a warning signal. In the immediate next frame the camera swings in a slightly haphazard manner within the vertical space. The movement here is to signify the commotion which is going on Paro’s mind at that moment whether it is her love dying outside her door, and the series of co-incidences which are giving her all the bizarre signals.

When she finally comes to know about the actual identity of the dying stranger, she runs like a mad woman. For the first time in the entire narrative, the Diya is shown in the storm now, with its flame struggling to survive against the deadly winds. Even Devdas is surviving for the last glimpse of its beloved. Paro is also running like a destructive storm now which is on in her mind, which is destroying every obstacle in its way. The restlessness in her mind and the extent of her frenzy is exhibited by the breakage of a chandelier which comes in her way while she is running.

Her family members try and stop her, but she isn’t the one to oblige. When they force her, there is bowl filled with a red liquid, which is like a solution made out of Sindoor, but resembles blood. In her madness, the container topples and her feet are soaked in the liquid, while the marks also spread on her white garment. The colour of her sari indicates the edge in her life. It is a white which is this context can be interpreted as the colour for widows in the Indian context, laced with red which is the colour of the Suhaagan, and Paro is now somewhere in between as her love lies on the death bed. Also her footprints here resemble her footprints when she meets her love for the first time. There she willingly refuses to show him her face, and here circumstances play the same role. Irrespective of her mad efforts at running she ends up defeated as the doors close between the two lovers. The door here is the symbol of society which doesn’t believe in the spiritual union of the lovers, and believes only in the mundane nuptial relationship. Devdas manages to get a last glimpse of his love though and his soul is freed from the skeletal prison. His spirit exhales for the last time, as he utters Paro’s name, and the winds blow the Diya off, whose journey was bound to end with Devdas’s. The visual now is the shedding of the flowers by the Gulmohar tree. From the full-bloom right at the beginning which were symbolic to the happy times in his life, to this condition, the tree totally represents the journey of Devdas.