man is inseparable from the image of Devdas, the character he played. Reviews and critiques Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay (1876–1938) wrote Devdas in 1901 when he was 25. But he could not find a publisher till 1917. Sarat Chandra was sympathetic to the woman - repressed at home and tortured outside. He was partial to those who, for no fault of theirs, incurred the disapproval or displeasure of the family or community. The social and domestic atmosphere in Sarat Chandra's works does not exist any more. But the story interest keeps the reader hooked, irrespective of the plausibility or otherwise of the narrative. His stories were extremely ‘filmogenic’ and therefore, novels like Parineeta (1914), Biraj Bou (1914) and Palli Samaj (1916), appear as topical to the Indian filmmaker as stories written by contemporary writers. Translated in many Indian languages, Devdas continues to be Sarat Chandra Chatterjee's most successful and controversial novel. The climax of the film was Pramathesh's original contribution to the story because Sarat Chandra had written it differently. Had Devdas the film, ended the way the novel did, the audience might not have understood it. Barua decided that when Parvati would hear that her Devdas was dying under a tree outside her house, she would run out to see him. But as she would rush out, the doors would begin to close on her. This door is a metaphor for the social taboo against a married woman rushing out to see her former lover, crossing the threshold of her marital home. It was unthinkable in those days. "Barua conceptualised this entire scene. It was not there in the novel. When Sarat Babu saw the film, he was so moved that he told Barua that even he had never thought of ending the novel the way Barua had done," informed Jamuna Barua. Sarat Babu went on to tell Pramathesh that this actor's entry into films was solely to give life to Devdas, the character he had created through the written word. Devdas turned into a folk hero for all time. Pramathesh metamorphosed into a cultural icon of his time since he directed and brought to life the Devdas character. Yet, the story goes that Pramathesh was under severe mental stress during the making of this film because he was still coping with his grief over the death of Kshiti (Amala Devi) who had died before he began to make the