Mira Nair on Satyajit Ray’s Masterpiece DEVI | From Studio 9

DEVI, which Ray made after the Apu Trilogy (THE SONG OF THE LITTLE ROAD, THE UNVANQUISHED, and THE WORLD OF APU), is an aching tour de force. Based on Prabhat Kumar Mukherjee’s story, Devi’s core debate — faith vs. reason — makes it more complex than the trilogy while remaining rooted in a family drama. After teenage newlyweds Umaprasad Chowdhury (Soumitra Chatterjee) and Doyamoyee (Sharmila Tagore) are separated as Umaprasad goes away to study, Doyamoyee dutifully massages the feet of her feudal father-in-law (Chhabi Biswas). Soon, he dreams that his beautiful daughter-in-law is the Hindu goddess Kali incarnate, and begins worshipping her. Doyamoyee is terrified of being trapped as a goddess, but a father–son showdown melts after she revives a dying child and news of her “miracles” spread like wildfire. Umaprasad persuades her to run away with him, but she has doubts: what if she is the goddess and cured that child?

Cinematographer Subrata Mitra’s work is impeccable; as the couple returns home through tall grass, melancholia engulfs you, in contrast with Apu and Durga’s joyous race through the tall grass in The Song of the Little Road. Doyamoyee’s inability to cure another sick child results in a grand tragedy. Ray daringly addresses a variation of the Oedipus complex, where the father-in-law, in a sense, “obtains” his daughter-in-law for himself. Ray revisited the faith-vs.-reason argument in An Enemy of the People (1989). Sixty years after Devi screened in competition at Cannes, Ray’s warnings are terrifyingly prescient: patriarchy and faith can be a fatal combination; in today’s India, this combination has nearly drowned out all reason.

#satyajitray #indiancinema

[upgenesisstudios]

Sir Satyajeet ray is the finest and master filmmaker. His works are the Stories about the cultural setup which holds a potential to understand the roots of authenticity. We have learnt so much from this master filmmaker and yet we feel his language of film was really strong and sane.

[debasishchakrabarti]

Swedish film Director Ingmer Bergman:s comment ' a grim serious film. The eyes of Devi (Sharmila) will remain in my memory
for long'.

[souravkaranjai]

Sad to see that she didn't even mention about other legends like Soumitra Chatterjee and Chobi Biswas. Without their brilliant performance, this movie couldn't happen.

[debasishchakrabarti]

'Devi' film proves blind belief, orthodoxy can make a disaster 🤭
A family has been ruined due to Kalikinkar's blind religious belief.

[sharadmishra]

This interpretation of "Devi" by this lady is a clear example of "If you are wearing red glasses, the world will become red for you"😅...If Satyajit Ray sir would listen it, either he would smile or get infuriated but certainly won't like it!! This lady equated orthodox beliefs with "beliefs in higher force or whatever you call it"..like really 😅..The classic case representing problems of ignorance.. Ignorance makes you pass sweeping statements..You might be an atheist because of your belief/ignorance, no big deal, problem is that you are putting your biased ideas into Ray's mouth... She said that relation in extended family looked incestuous in this film..."Incestuous"..Like really?? That's all you could interpret, if a blind believer started considering her daughter-in-law as her Mother Goddess Kali...Ray sir in the film was not at all questioning religion, belief, rituals anything in grand scheme of things as such..He had a simple warning/suggesion that dont let your belief overshadow your rationality, no matter how intelligent you really are, if your belief is making you blind towards your common sense/rationality, then disaster of highest order is at your gates!!! That's all he said...

[vaishalia]

Mother India book that is still banned in India by writer Mayo.. also has evil things like this story