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Devdas (1936 film)

1936 Hindi film by Pramathesh Barua

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 23, 2026
Entity authorityQ846889 ↗
Source-derived summary

Devdas is a 1936 Hindi-language Indian drama romance film based on the 1917 Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay novella, Devdas. Directed by Pramathesh Barua, it stars K.L. Saigal as Devdas, Jamuna Barua as Parvati (Paro) and Rajkumari as Chandramukhi. This was Barua's second of three language versions, the first being in Bengali and the third in Assamese.

Plot

Devdas falls in love with Parvati, with whom he has played since childhood and who is the daughter of a poor neighbouring family. Devdas goes away to Calcutta for university studies. Meanwhile, Parvati's father arranges her marriage to a much older man. Though she loves Devdas, she obeys her father to suffer in silence like a dutiful Indian daughter and wife of those times. Devdas, as a result, takes to drinking. Chandramukhi, a dancing girl or courtesan (tawaif) he has befriended in Calcutta, falls for him and gives up her profession to try to save him. Parvati, hearing of his decline, comes to see him to steer him away from a life of drinking.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Devdas (1936 film)” is 1936 Hindi film by Pramathesh Barua. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Devdas, film and Hindi, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1936, 1917—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Devdas, film and Hindi is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “1936 Hindi film by Pramathesh Barua” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q846889. The first chronological checks are 1936 and 1917.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

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  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Devdas (1936 film)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Devdas (1936 film) primary sources, Devdas (1936 film) archive and Devdas research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Devdas (1936 film)”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Devdas (1936 film)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.