Release
of Devdas Put Off Again
NEW
DELHII: India-wide release of
Devdas, the costliest film ever
from Bollywood, has been pushed
from mid-June to the second week
of July. Director Sanjay Leela
Bhansali and producer Bharat Shah
(the diamond merchant who was
behind the bars till recently
for his alleged links with the
underworld) plan to re-edit the
three-and-a-half-hour-long film.
They are reportedly nervous.
(Devdas is one of the latest screen
adaptations of a classic novel,
written originally in Bengali,
a regional language with high
literary traditions. - See
previous report)
It
had been flaunted by the media
as a great film and excitement
ran high when it became the first
Bollywood movie ever to be shown
at the annual Cannes film festival.
But most critics ignored it as
a non-event. Derek Malcolm, film
critic of the Guardian, London,
who is a frequent visitor to International
Film Festival of India dismissed
it as "a pretty silly three hours
worth of romance , song and dance,
and utterly tasteless - if luxuriant
- production design. Not fit to
lick the boots of Lagaan ..."
An
Indian critic wrote: "The majority
of audiences walked out mid-way.
The few who remained shrugged
their shoulders after the show."
-by
Our Film Critic
June 28,
2002
