Devi (film)

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Movie
Original title দেবী
(Devi)
Country of production India
original language Bengali
Publishing year 1960
length 94 minutes
Rod
Director Satyajit Ray
script Satyajit Ray
production Satyajit Ray
music Ali Akbar Khan
camera Subrata Mitra
cut Dulal Dutta
occupation

Devi ( Bengali : দেবী , Debī ; translated: The Goddess ) is an Indian feature film by Satyajit Ray from 1960. It was based on the 1899 story of the same name by Prabhat Kumar Mukherjee .

action

The film action begins during Durga Puja and the sinking of a Durga statue. Immediately afterwards, Umaprasad has to leave his young wife Doya, to whom he has been married for a few years, with his family in the country, because he has to go to college in Kolkata to take an exam. Doya dedicates herself to her five-year-old nephew Khoka and her father-in-law Kalikinkar.

One night the goddess Kali, whom he fervently adores, appears to him in a dream and mixes with the image of Doya. Driven by the conviction that Doya is an incarnation of Kali, he throws himself at her feet and from then on calls her "mother" only in reference to the goddess. Doya is installed as a medium of morning and evening worship; she sits where the house's Kali statue previously stood. During her ordination by a priest, Doya becomes unconscious, which Kalinkar interprets to mean that she has been raptured into a state of samadhi (spiritual trance). Her sister-in-law Harasundari does not believe the story of the incarnation, but since she also plays a subordinate role in the household of her father-in-law, she cannot do anything.

A poor farm laborer brings his sick son to ask for the helpful blessing ( darshan ) from "the mother". More and more people from the neighborhood are joining them. Meanwhile Umaprasad comes home and when his gaze meets the Doyas, a tear runs down her cheek and she carefully shakes her head. Umaprasad confronts his father and is alienated from his superstitious idea. In the meantime the sick boy has regained his health and Umaprasad has few arguments to oppose his father, since his logic has apparently come true. Umaprasad secretly observes the evening ritual.

At night he goes to Doya and asks her if she herself believes she is an incarnation of Kali. He suggests that they flee to Kolkata together. As they leave, Doya doubts whether she is the mother Kali after all, since she has healed the child, and she turns back.

Thousands are now flocking to Kalinkar's house to worship Doya and to receive her and the priestly blessings (through the administration of Charanamrita ). Umaprasad seeks advice and is willing to fight for his wife and his marriage. When Khoka suddenly falls ill, her brother-in-law Taraprasad, his wife Harasundari and Kalinkar bring him to Doya overnight. The boy dies.

Umaprasad comes back the next day and settles accounts with his father. He accuses him of killing Khoka with his superstition. When he meets Doya, she goes mad.

background

Devi was released on February 19, 1960.

The film is a study of religious obsession and focuses on the old landowner Kalikinkar's idea that his daughter-in-law was an incarnation of the goddess Kali. In the sequence of events alone, Satyajit Ray shows the absurdity of this idea. The Hindu-critical work is Ray's argument against the destructive nature of religious fanaticism and superstition, visualized by Doya, who gradually loses her sense of reality and her individuality. The film is a revealing glimpse into the religious passions of the Indian subcontinent.

Award

Individual evidence

  1. http://www.all-story.com/issues.cgi?action=show_story&story_id=245
  2. ^ His Career ( Memento of December 10, 2007 in the Internet Archive )

Web links