Themes: Religious Zealotry, Fathers and Daughters, Crisis of Faith
Main Cast: Chhabi Biswas, Soumitra Chatterjee, Sharmila Tagore
Release Year: 1960
Country: IN
Run Time: 96 minutes
Plot
Director Satyajit Ray adapted his script for Devi from the collected works of Indian authors Prabhatkumar Mukherjee and Rabinranath Tagore. The teen-aged title character Doyamoyee, played by Sharmila Tagore, may not be a "goddess" at all, but try telling that to Kalikinkar Roy (Chhabi Biswas), her wealthy and influential father. He places Doyamoyee on an outside pillar for all to see; the townsfolk are at first inclined to go along with Roy's illusion because of his financial status, but soon they've convinced themselves that the girl does indeed have divine powers. The girl's husband Umaprasad (Soumitra Chatterjee) wants her to put an end to what he considers nonsense. As a result....well, the results depend on whether you see the film's original ending, or Ray's "rethought" climax, filmed a year or so after Devi's completion. In addition to writing and directing the film, Ray also provided the musical score. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Devi is one of Satyajit Ray's most powerful explorations of the collision between modernity and traditional Indian life. Chhabi Biswas plays Kalikinkar Roy, a rural land baron who becomes convinced that his young teenage daughter, Doya (Sharmila Tagore), is the reincarnation of the fearsome Hindu goddess Kali, and forces her to sit silently, day after day, on a platform on his front porch so the local villagers can worship her. Ray, ever the humanist, emphasizes the toll Roy's madness takes on the fragile psyche of his daughter. And Tagore, a teenager herself performing in only her second film (the first was Ray's Apur Sansar), brilliantly conveys the mental and physical fatigue Doya suffers as she tries to decide if she really believes she's the goddess everyone around her tells her she is. In a film full of moving scenes, perhaps the most memorable is the one in which Doya's husband, university student Uma (Soumitra Chatterjee), returns home to find his wife stranded on her pedestal, unable to speak to him and surrounded by adoring villagers. Their silent exchange of expressions conveys all of the confusion, longing, and anger each of them feels. Uma, who regards Roy as a fool, causes a rift in the household, making Doya a pawn in the battle between Uma's rationalism and Roy's fanaticism. The film depicts the deep religious beliefs of Roy and his family with respect, but it's also clear that Ray's own beliefs most resemble Uma's (Chatterjee's characters in Ray's films often function as surrogates for the director), but his sympathies lie, above all, with the tragically conflicted Doya. ~ Tom Vick, All Movie Guide
In 1860 rural Bengal, Doyamoyee (Sharmila Tagore) and her husband Umaprasad (Soumitra Chatterjee) live with Umaprasad's family. His father, Kalikinkar Roy, is a devoted follower of the goddess Kali. Since Umaprasad is away at school, Doyamoyee takes care of her father-in-law.
One evening, Kalikinkar has a dream that Doyamoyee is an avatar of Kali and must be worshipped as such. Soon other people too come to believe that she is an incarnation of the goddess. After hearing the news, Umprasad returns home but is unable to remedy the situation as Doyamoyee herself begins to believe that she is an avatar, a belief which soon turns to tragedy.
