Devi

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.

Film Info

  • India
  • 1960
  • 99 minutes
  • Black & White
  • 1.37:1
  • Bengali
  • Spine #1102

Blu-ray Special Edition Features

  • New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
  • New program featuring interviews with actors Sharmila Tagore and Soumitra Chatterjee recorded in 2013
  • New video essay by film scholar Meheli Sen
  • New English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: An essay by film critic Devika Girish

Cover based on an illustration by Satyajit Ray

Purchase Options

Blu-ray Special Edition Features

  • New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
  • New program featuring interviews with actors Sharmila Tagore and Soumitra Chatterjee recorded in 2013
  • New video essay by film scholar Meheli Sen
  • New English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: An essay by film critic Devika Girish

Cover based on an illustration by Satyajit Ray

Devi
Cast
Chhabi Biswas
Kalikinkar Roy
Soumitra Chatterjee
Umaprasad Roy
Sharmila Tagore
Doyamoyee
Purnendu Mukherjee
Taraprasad Roy
Karuna Banerjee
Harasundari
Arpan Chowdhury
Khoka
Anil Chatterjee
Bhudeh
Kali Sarkar
Professor Sarkar
Mohammed Israil
Nibaran
Credits
Director
Satyajit Ray
Produced by
Satyajit Ray Productions
Screenplay adapted from the short story of the same title by
Prabhat Kumar Mukhopadhyay
Based on an idea by
Rabindranath Tagore
Cinematography
Subrata Mitra
Editor
Dulal Dutta
Art director
Bansi Chandragupta
Music
Ali Akbar Khan
Sound
Durgadas Mitra

Current

Devi: Seeing and Believing
Devi: Seeing and Believing

Considered his first directly political film, Satyajit Ray’s 1960 masterpiece explores how the denial of self-knowledge, a void neither religion nor Western rationalism can fill, takes a toll on women in Indian society.

By Devika Girish