Sharat Chandra Chatterjee's classic novel Devdas is about two lovers - Debdas and Parbati - who can never unite as mortals because of the class system in the society.

All Indian prints of this Bengali version were destroyed decades ago in a fire that ravaged New Theatre’s studios.

He grew up in the lush village of Taj Sonapur, where he spent his childhood, indulged by his lovely playmate Paro.

Paro's world crashed knowing that her Devdas would be gone and she lit a diya, for it signified the quick return of her loved one.

But Zamindar Narayan Mukherjee, Devdas' father, met Paro's mother Sumitra's marriage proposal with condescending arrogance.

She scorned him for not standing by her and they parted forever with a heart-broken Paro entering into a chaste marriage with a wealthy, much older man, Zamindar Bhuvan, while a shattered Devdas walked towards anguish, alcoholism & Chandramukhi.

Devdas, based on a popular Bengali novel by Sarat Chandra Chatterjee, revolutionized the entire look of Indian social pictures.

Rather than just translate one medium to another, PC Barua uses the novel as just raw material, creating his own structure and transforming what was purely verbal into an essentially visual form.

His method is to underplay, to convey emotion through the slightest tremor of the voice and use significant pauses in between the dialogue to maximum effect.

The great physical distance that separates them and Devdas anxiety to redeem a promise is skillfully conveyed through some stunning use of parallel cutting.

His songs in the film Balam Aaye Baso Mere Man Mein and Dukh ke Din Ab Beete Nahin became smash hits and set the tone for a glorious filmic career till his death in 1947.

Saigal remains the prototype of Devdas till today, no mean feat considering screen giants such as Dilip Kumar, Akkineni Nageswara Rao and Soumitra Chatterjee repeated the role later.

The film, made in 1955, starred Dilip Kumar, Suchitra Sen and Vyjayanthimala as Devdas, Parvati and Chandramukhi respectively.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali has made a version of the film in 2002 with Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai and Madhuri Dixit in the three lead roles.

Translated in many Indian languages, Devdas continues to be Sarat Chandra Chatterjee's most successful and controversial novel.

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.

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.

As soon as work on Devdas was complete, Jamuna gave birth to their son who, to rhyme with the film that brought the lovers together, was christened Debkumar.

There are several scenes in Devdas that marked the entry of the jump cut to heighten the drama through a new editing strategy.

When Devdas vomits blood during his travels, the camera cuts in to show a plate of floral offerings fall off Parvati's hands, far away in her matrimonial home.

These scenes set out Pramathesh's creative imagination in explaining through the language of cinema the psychological stress his characters were reeling under, as also the telepathic bonding the lovers shared, without reducing these to melodrama or using sentimental dialogue.

He describes, in particular, the scene where Devdas, after his beloved Parvati has been married to another, wanders aimlessly, drinking and shooting down birds at random.

A friend of Parvati who spots him from a distance while carrying a pot of water back home, is scared to cross his path.

But Devdas merely comes close to the girl and asks her how she is, thus building a scene to an unpredictable anti-climax in a film spilling over with dramatic twists and turns and human tragedy.

So powerful was the impact of Pramathesh's portrayal on screen, so close it grew to his private life, that to the Bengali audience, Devdas was synonymous with the actor who played the character.

It tried to explore the inner pain of this man, torn between the pull he feels towards his village roots and his wish to run away to the city to escape from the tragic reality of a lost love.

Only two women - Parvati and Chandramu- khi - who operate like invisible, unwritten ‘guardians of conscience’ in the wreckage his life is reduced to, are left to grieve over his death.

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.