Devdas: Drunk on love

GETTING drunk is better than actingdrunk. The truth dawned upon Shah Rukh on the sets of. “I don’t normallydrink,� he says. “But I told Sanjay it’s boring to try and actdrunk. So I took Bacardi neat or with Pepsi for some scenes.� And once therum had its effect, Khan says, he couldn’t recall how he per-formed thosescenes. Of course, he’s just kidding. “There’s too muchimportance attached to my playing Devdas,� he says. “So I’drather underplay this fact. "My only concern was that I shouldn’t end upspoiling the characters played by Dilip Kumar and K L Saigal — and to someextent, Amitabh in .� But did he curb his style of acting? “I’mmore into the Michael J Fox and Peter Sellers kind of acting — in theface. And is a littlequiet.� AT the moment, Aishwarya Rai’s on a high, looking back atParo, the character she’s played in Devdas. “Paro is wonderful,giving unconditional love. Yet, she is rebellious in her own way. Her life is anirony. You can connect with the emotional journey of the characters.� Sheadmits she’s the verbose child-woman, with incredible inner strength, justlike Paro. “Enacting Paro was a wonderful emotional catharsis.� Doesshe perceive Devdas as a loser or a strong lover? “I never judge peoplenegatively, whether in a film or in real life, because everybody has their ownreasons for behaving like that. It’s unfair to term a true lover likeDevdas, a loser. He loves intensely, and he has a child-man quality. You lovehim, get angry, reprimand him and guide him. Devdas evokes multiple emotions inyou.�