Soumitra Chatterjee, Sharmila Tagore, Chhabi Biswas, Karuna Banerjee, Purnendu Mukherjee, Arpan Chowdhury. Title from subtitled screen and statement of responsibility and credits from English subtitles. Based on the story by Prabhat Kumar Mukhopadhyay, from an idea by Rabindranath Tagore. Originally released as a motion picture in 1960. Full screen (1.37:1 aspect ratio). Accompanied by 12 page folded sheet containing an essay, cast, credits and restoration information. Special features: New program featuring interviews with Sharmila Tagore and Soumitra Chatterjee recorded in 2013; A goddess in close-up: Satyajit Ray's Devi (new video essay by Meheli Sen); essay by Devika Girish.
Summary:
"Master filmmaker Satyajit Ray explores the conflict between fanaticism and free will in Devi (The Goddess), issuing a subversively modern challenge to religious orthodoxy and patriarchal power structures. In rural India in the second half of the nineteenth century, after his son (Soumitra Chatterjee) leaves for Kolkata to complete his studies, a wealthy feudal landlord (Chhabi Biswas) is seized by the notion that his beloved daughter-in-law (a hauntingly sad-eyed Sharmila Tagore) is an incarnation of the Mother Goddess--a delusion that proves devastating to the young woman and those around her. The elegantly stylized compositions and the chiaroscuro lighting by cinematographer Subrata Mitra heighten the expressionistic intensity of this domestic tragedy, making for an experience that is both sublime and shattering"--Container.
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