Devi- The re-incarnation.
In the late nineteenth century, Provatkumar Mukhopadhyay had written a short story based on a 16 year old girl who was considered as an incarnation of Devi (Goddess) by her religious father-in-law. The short story first published in the year 1899 appealed to Satyajit Ray which he thought could be made into a film with interesting character interconnections and the idea of a period film highly intrigued him.
Umaprasad’s father Kalikinkar (Chhabi Biswas) was an ardent devotee of the Goddess Kali and in a supposed dream, Kalikinkar sees his daughter-in-law, Dayamoyee as the incarnation of Goddess Kali on Earth. Trouble begins when Dayamoyee too starts believing her to be the incarnation leading to a bizarre set of events that befalls the entire family.
The film opens with the sequence of the Devi Durga (Goddess Durga) being worshipped as a part of the traditional festival of Bengal. Umaprasad though hails from a rich Zamindar family; he …show more content…
To his dismay the film created civil unrest in all places including even in the Parliament where the generic agenda was to ban the film as it might send a wrong message to the western audiences about Hindu culture and worship. The then Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru intervened in the situation and spoke in favor of Ray which saved the film from a would be ban.
The masterpiece that “Devi” was is validated with the same intensity even in the present day Bengal or in a larger sense- present day India. The colorful shades of characters and the elements of mystified rigid ignorant mass of population, who continue to practice eccentric methods of worshipping Gods and Goddesses, provide space for such thoughts. To reword Ray’s quote India is still a country where cows are the holy mother, phallus a God and woman as a
In the late nineteenth century, Provatkumar Mukhopadhyay had written a short story based on a 16 year old girl who was considered as an incarnation of Devi (Goddess) by her religious father-in-law. The short story first published in the year 1899 appealed to Satyajit Ray which he thought could be made into a film with interesting character interconnections and the idea of a period film highly intrigued him.
Umaprasad’s father Kalikinkar (Chhabi Biswas) was an ardent devotee of the Goddess Kali and in a supposed dream, Kalikinkar sees his daughter-in-law, Dayamoyee as the incarnation of Goddess Kali on Earth. Trouble begins when Dayamoyee too starts believing her to be the incarnation leading to a bizarre set of events that befalls the entire family.
The film opens with the sequence of the Devi Durga (Goddess Durga) being worshipped as a part of the traditional festival of Bengal. Umaprasad though hails from a rich Zamindar family; he …show more content…
To his dismay the film created civil unrest in all places including even in the Parliament where the generic agenda was to ban the film as it might send a wrong message to the western audiences about Hindu culture and worship. The then Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru intervened in the situation and spoke in favor of Ray which saved the film from a would be ban.
The masterpiece that “Devi” was is validated with the same intensity even in the present day Bengal or in a larger sense- present day India. The colorful shades of characters and the elements of mystified rigid ignorant mass of population, who continue to practice eccentric methods of worshipping Gods and Goddesses, provide space for such thoughts. To reword Ray’s quote India is still a country where cows are the holy mother, phallus a God and woman as a