'Daasdev' is the reverse journey of 'Devdas', says filmmaker Sudhir Mishra

Film is a modern flip of novel 'Devdas' with similar characters and will release in February 2018

The Valentine's week next year will see the release of Sudhir Mishra's DaasDev - a reverse take on the original Devdas classic love saga.

DaasDev - a romantic thriller - will release on February 16 theatres worldwide., said a statement.

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Starring Richa Chadha as Paro, Aditi Rao Hydari as Chandni and Rahul Bhat as Dev, the film is a modern flip of the Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's classic novel Devdas, and is set in the modern time of hinterland India against the backdrop of politics.

Of the project, Mishra said: "I think it's my right to use everything from my heritage, so I can play with it as long as I admit to it. I admit that I took Devdas and the three characters Dev, Paro, and Chandramukhi."

PHOTO: HINDUSTAN TIMES

He continued, "Ultimately it became a film about power as it gets into the way of love. It became a reverse journey because if Devdas is a journey from a noble person to a 'das', this is a journey from 'das' - a person who is a slave to his addictions and the dynastic ambitions of his family, to Dev."

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Revealing further details about the film, the director shared, "It is about how he liberates himself, how he breaks free and ultimately achieves a kind of nobility which is essentially what a 'Dev' is.
Hence, Daasdev."

PHOTO: HINDUSTAN TIMES

Speaking about the characters, Mishra stated, "Paro is not Paro of Sarathchandra Chatterjee’s novel so I apologise for not allowing her to be trapped behind a big gate inside her husband’s house. In my version, she is a modern, spunky, interesting woman who fights with the weapons she has and in the end, confronts Dev. That’s how I’ve seen women and that’s how I see Paro."

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He continued, "In my idea, they have the right to be wrong and they have the right do wrong in order to do right. For me, they don’t need to apologise for betrayal as men don’t require to apologise for betrayals or rather just as men never do. They think it’s their right so why does it bother everyone if women do the same. Why is such a big fuss created around it?”

PHOTO: HINDUSTAN TIMES

"And then comes Chandni. In my version, she is as close to Chandramukhi as she can get in this day and age - the one who services the political forces of our time. The so-called modern semi-feudal upper-class families and the patriarchal world don’t accept women like her," he shared.

He further added, "She has the essence of Chandramukhi and why can’t this kind of a person have the essence of Chandramukhi? My Chandni also has the same blind spot, the same fatal flaw that Chandramukhi had; her love for Dev. This is the film. It is in a sense, love in the time of power and insensitivity but it is still love because without that, there would be nothing,” he concluded.

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