The story of Devdas, a famous Indian novel written in the 1920’s by Saratchandra Chattopadhyay, has been made into film numerous times by Bollywood. It is about the spoiled son of a wealthy man, who is loved by Paro, his lower caste neighbor and childhood playmate. Devdas is a weak, aimless sort who is blown about by destiny, never taking action until it is too late. He is unable to recognize his love for Paro until she has been married off to an older man and is lost to him forever. He then turns to the bottle, and to Chandramukhi, for comfort and forgetfulness.Devdas deals with the effects of an unrequited love on a person not strong enough to confront it or move on in life. Never before and never after has a hero’s role been depicted as darkly and with so much of a defeatist attitude. The character of Devdas is loosely modeled on the Grecian tragedy heroes who suffer on account of destiny and therein lies the vulnerability of the character. Unlike the Shakespearean heroes, Devdas is not a creation of his own errors but suffers since he fails to connect to a changing milieu. On a superficial level, Devdas may appear to be the story of a loser, a man who lost in love and could never accept that he had lost. But actually, it’s the story of every man who has failed in some attempt and refused to give it another shot for the fear of an encore.