Tomorrow is the Questionable Taste Theatre as planned, but I couldn’t wait to post this movie, probably my perfect example of Go Big or Go Home.

Devdas is a Bollywood blockbuster that is seriously one of the most beautiful films ever made. Whatever you may think about it (overblown – check, overlong – check, overrated – maybe), you really, really can’t think, “It’s ugly.”

Set in a magical-realism style 1930s Calcuuta, Devdas is the story of the young, upper-class man who comes home from university, falls in love with the lower-class girl next door, rejects her, regrets it when she marries another dude, and starts drinking.

(No, really, that’s the plot. Like, all of Calcutta gets really upset all the time that he’s drinking. There’s whole musical numbers about it. )

He ends up living in a brothel under the care of Chandramukti, a courtesan who falls in love with him knowing he can never love her back, and watches as he descends into death from occasional light drinking. (OH THE HUMANITY!) For me, though, hers is the real story, because Madhuri Dixit is just amazing in this part.

BUT NOT AS AMAZING AS THE COSTUMES.

This is Chandramukti’s introductory costume. It weighed over 50 pounds. FIFTY POUNDS.

This is the first time Devdas sees her; I have no further commentary, except that there is no way mortal humans can dance that number whatsoever, much less in a fifty-pound dress. This woman has superpowers.

NOTE: If you don’t watch a lot of Bollywood, the singing voices are dubbed in; it’s the usual practice. Don’t let the lip-synching scare you.

IN THIS CLIP, WATCH FOR: Madhuri being AWESOME, A FIFTY-POUND SKIRT.

Also, her jewelry wasn’t part of the costume count.

I’m going to guess that’s about six pounds, some of it hanging from her veil, so, yeah, let me call my chiropractor and I’ll be right back.

This dress was 16 kilos (what, thirty pounds?).

The ease of movement in that bodice is NONEXISTENT. It’s skintight and crusted with beads. How she even lifts her arms is beyond me.

(Also, this song seriously gets to me; by now she knows he loves someone else, and is about to debase herself by GOING to that someone else and asking for help in getting Devdas to stop drinking.)

IN THIS CLIP, LOOK FOR: Devdas trying to drink himself into the grave one glass of sherry at a time, Genevieve getting totally emo, Madhuri being AWESOME.

In more lightweight costumes, these were for the “Dola Re Dola” dance sequence, where Paro (the now-married childhood love of Devdas) takes Chandramukti in as a friend. It was a big deal both in the narrative (since in the book the movie is based on the characters never meet), but because it marked a duet with two of Bollywood’s biggest stars.

These saris (sort of, I’m going to have to guess they were more movement-minded than actual saris) were test-draped on mannequins for months beforehand to get the actual dressing time to a minimum. They took three hours to drape. EACH. THREE HOURS EACH TO DRAPE THESE. (In fact, all of Paro’s saris took three hours to drape properly, and were made of twice the usual amount of fabric for richness when she walked.)

IN THIS CLIP, LOOK FOR: Ashwarya Rai being AWESOME, eight million backup dancers being AWESOME, dude with a Moustache of Evil, the world’s catchiest tune, the most cheerful delivery of “I am the dust under his feet” ever committed to film, Madhuri Dixit being AWESOME.

To conclude: AWESOME.

ETA: I have to point out, these are done in Fred Astaire takes, with minimal cutting. It’s just…unreal.