the Devdas they saw on screen and Pramathesh Barua, the real man who was merely playing out a role. Never before or since, has any screen character meshed so completely, so seamlessly and so ideally with the actor who brought the character to life on celluloid. Stylistically, Pramathesh adopted a refreshing economy throughout the film. "The film was a complete departure from the then-prevalent theatricality in acting, treatment and dialogue. Barua initiated a style of acting which was natural and unaffected; his method was to underplay, to convey emotion through the slightest tremor of the voice and use significant pauses between the dialogue to telling effect. The dialogue too, was simple, everyday speech, without dramatic flamboyance or literary flourish. The slow, soft and cleverly modulated dialogue became a hallmark not only of Barua’s but all of New Theatres’ films." The Indian movie world was adorned with some excellent productions by Pramathesh Barua. But, his most celebrated work is Devdas. He played the title role in it, where the other stars were Biswanath Bhaduri, Uma Shashi, Kundan Saigal and Chandrabati. Raichand Boral was the music director. The story of Devdas was based on the novel of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhya of the same title. The novelist was so deeply moved by the film that tears rolled down his eyes and he opined that PC Barua’s Devdas was more distinctive than the Devdas of his own novel. Noted film critic Chidananda Das Gupta made a significant remark — "Pramathesh Barua did not merely make Devdas, but also came to be widely known as ‘Devdas’ rather than a Rajkumar (prince) ... His Devdas is a milestone in the film world of the subcontinent". Awards Social and cultural impact Political and social influence The Directorate of Film Festivals had to borrow a copy of India's first film version of this from the Bangladesh High Commission in order to screen it during the Devdas retrospective here on Delhi on Oct 2002 at Delhi Film Festival. The film was sent through diplomatic bag by the Bangladesh government and the screening was conducted under strict vigil, no video clips, no photographs, no extracts on television — as the copyright belongs to the Bangladesh Film Archives. The film was screened to a full auditorium. The copyright of the film actually belongs to the New Theatre. The Indian prints of P.C. Barua’s Bengali version of the film, with Barua playing