Devdas

It was the most expensive Indian film ever made at the time. The budget started at $6.5m and rose to $18.5m, roughly half of which went on sets alone. Paro's house was covered in 157,000 pieces of stained glass and cost three crore by itself; Chandramukhi's palace cost twelve. The source is Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's 1917 novel, one of the most frequently adapted texts in Bengali literature. Devdas is forbidden by his family from marrying his childhood love Paro, and gives himself over to drink and to a courtesan's house. It screened out of competition at the 55th Cannes Film Festival and was treated as a break in Indian cinema's international visibility after a long absence. It became the highest-grossing Indian film of its year at 1.68 billion rupees, around $35m. Shah Rukh Khan plays Devdas, Aishwarya Rai plays Paro and Madhuri Dixit plays Chandramukhi. Sanjay Leela Bhansali directed. Who it is for: viewers who treat excessive colour, design and music as a choice rather than a fault, and are ready for three hours of Indian melodrama. Who it is not for: anyone wanting restraint. Every scene opens the emotion to its limit, and the film never questions Devdas's self-pity.