The Bollywood film Devdas has found a prominent place in a survey by prestigious British film magazine Sight & Sound for "best music in film".

Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Devdas has been described by well-known French director Patrice Chereau as his favourite musical of all times.

Giving his reason for selecting Devdas over other international favourites like The Godfather and Psycho, Chereau tells Sight & Sound: "My favourite original score is the one in the film Devdas because it has extraordinary vitality."

"I can listen to it up to 10 times back-to-back, with all the images of the film returning to me. I lift up myself from my armchair and dance in my office hoping that the neighbours across the street are not at their windows," he further added. Chereau himself has made the haunting period film Queen Margot as well as the sexually charged Intimacy.

The latest triumph for Devdas delights its creator.

Says Bhansali: "The music getting recognition in the West is a special triumph for me and composer Ismail Durbar, background scorer Monty and my lyricist Nusrat Badr."

"All of us had worked so hard to create that special quality of sound in Devdas which was both classical and contemporary, Bengali and yet universal. The music of Devdas took two years of my life."

"I flew down alone to Kolkata to research various music pieces. But finally when the soundtrack released, the sales were disappointing. People said the music in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam was better. I accepted that in all humility, though when the Hum Dil... score had come out, lots of people had found that disappointing too."

"I feel 10 years down the line the Devdas soundtrack will get its due...For the music of Devdas to get a mention in such a classy poll in Sight & Sound is no mean achievement."

Interestingly, Monty, who did the background score in Devdas, returns in Bhansali's new film to do the same. Black, ready for release in mid-December, has no songs!

Laughs Bhansali. "Did I feel lost without songs? No. Because I've used the background score as songs. The emotional scenes are choreographed in a way that they will sing to the audience. I agree, for me who lives and breathes Hindi film music, doing a song-less film was almost unthinkable."

"But I feel songs are becoming increasingly cumbersome to Hindi cinema. We can't keep thrusting them into every genre. Also, the standard of music in an average film is appalling. I'd rather use songs, which suits the script. They fitted fabulously into Devdas. They had no place in Black. What Monty has done with the background score is incredible."

Incidentally, the lone Indian director to be quizzed by Sight & Sound is Santosh Sivan, who cites Milos Forman's Amadeus and Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker as his favourite musicals.