''Devi'' (English: "The Goddess") is a 1960

Bengali-language Bengali ( ), generally known by its endonym Bangla (, ), is an Indo-Aryan language native to the Bengal region of South Asia. It is the official, national, and most widely spoken language of Bangladesh and the second most widely spoken of t ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super- ...

by director

Satyajit Ray Satyajit Ray (; 2 May 1921 – 23 April 1992) was an Indian director, screenwriter, documentary filmmaker, author, essayist, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligrapher, and music composer. One of the greatest auteurs of ...

, starring

Sharmila Tagore Sharmila Tagore (also known as Begum Ayesha Sultana; born 8 December 1944) is a retired Indian actress, primarily known for her work in Hindi and Bengali cinema, Tagore is the recipient of two National Film Awards, a Filmfare Award, and the F ...

and

Soumitra Chatterjee Soumitra Chatterjee (also spelt as Chattopadhyay; 16 June 193515 November 2020) was an Indian film actor, play-director, playwright, writer, thespian and poet. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential actors in the history of I ...

. It is based on a short story by Provatkumar Mukhopadhyay. The title means "Goddess".

Plot

In 19th-century rural

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

, Doyamoyee (

) and her husband Umaprasad (

) live with Umaprasad's family. Umaprasad's elder brother Taraprasad, his wife and their young son Khoka (with whom Doyamoyee shares a special bond) also live in this house. Umaprasad and Taraprasad's father, Kalikinkar Choudhuri, is a devoted follower of the goddess

Kali Kali (; sa, काली, ), also referred to as Mahakali, Bhadrakali, and Kalika ( sa, कालिका), is a Hindu goddess who is considered to be the goddess of ultimate power, time, destruction and change in Shaktism. In this tra ...

. Umaprasad leaves for Kolkata (Calcutta) to teach in college and learn English, and Doyamoyee remains behind to take care of her father-in-law. One evening, Kalikinkar has a vivid dream that intermingles the eyes of the ''devi'' Kali and the face of Doyamoyee. When Kalikinkar awakens, he is convinced that Doyamoyee is an

avatar Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appear ...

of Kali. He goes to Doyamoyee and worships at her feet. Following Kalikainker's gesture, Taraprasad also accepts Doyamoyee as goddess. But Taraprasad's wife believes the entire idea is ridiculous, and writes a letter to Umaprasad urging him to return home as soon as possible. Soon Kalikinker starts to worship Doyamoyee officially and changes her room and lifestyles etc. Many people start to visit her and offer prayers and drink ''charanamrito'' (water with which the devi's foot has been washed). Then a man comes with his terminally ill grandson, and after drinking this ''charanamrito'', the boy wakes up. This coincidence leads other people to believe that she is an incarnation of the goddess. Umaprasad returns home at this point and is horrified by what he sees and yet is unable to counter his father's assertions about Doyamoyee being the Goddess herself due to this recent 'miracle'. Umaprasad sneaks into Doyamoyee's room and convinces her to escape with him to Calcutta. Once they reach the riverbank from where they were supposed to take a boat, Doyamoyee refuses for she is scared and starts doubting that if she were indeed the Goddess, it might harm Umaprasad if she defies the family's wishes and elopes. Umaprasad returns her to her room and eventually goes away to Calcutta again. Over time Doyamoyee, only seventeen, is stifled with the loneliness that is forced upon her. Khoka (their nephew) also avoids her even though he used to spend most of his time with her before. She is compelled to a life of isolation and myth, far away from a life of reality. This saddens her deeply, but she is unable to escape as she is bound to superstitions and a patriarchal society. Meanwhile, Khoka has developed a severe fever. The family refuses to go to a doctor, they believing that Doyamoyee's ''charanamrito'' will heal Khoka. So, they keep the child near Doyamoyee that night. But being a logical person, Khoka's mother asks Doyamoyee to give up and to tell their father-in-law to visit the doctor. But as a young girl of seventeen, Doyamoyee is unable to voice it out and instead decides to keep Khokha with her that night because she misses his company, while hoping he recovers miraculously. The next morning, when Umaprasad returns to home to take action against his father's beliefs and to free Doyamoyee from this situation, he finds his father is crying at the Goddess Kali's feet. The reason is at that morning, Khoka has died due to lack of proper treatment; the Charanamrito didn't work and the belief cost the child's life. Umaprasad rushes to Doyamoyee's room and finds her in an abnormal condition, as she mumbles that she should go to the water (visarjan - god and goddess statues are drowned in water after the worship is completed), otherwise the family would kill her. Umaprasad is unable to make her see sense, as Khoka's death and her own experiences of being called a goddess become too much for her to bear, breaking her psychologically.

Cast

- Dayamoyee *

Chhabi Biswas Chhabi Biswas (''Chabi Biśbās'') (13 July 1900 – 11 June 1962) was an Indian actor, primarily known for his performances in Tapan Sinha's '' Kabuliwala'' and Satyajit Ray's films '' Jalshaghar'' (''The Music Room'', 1958), '' Devi'' ...

- Kalikinkar Choudhuri *

- Umaprasad * Purnendu Mukherjee - Taraprasad * Karuna Banerjee - Harasundari * Arpan Chowdhury - Khoka, child *

Anil Chatterjee Anil Chatterjee (Chattopadhyay) bn, অনিল চ্যাটার্জী (চট্টোপাধ্যায়) (25 October 1929 – 17 March 1996) was an Indian actor in the Bengali cinema during the early fifties through the mid-ni ...

- Bhudeb * Kali Sarkar - Professor Sarkar * Mohammed Israil - Nibaran * Khagesh Chakravarti - Kaviraj * Nagendranath Kabyabyakarantirtha - Priest *

Santa Devi Santa Claus, also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, or simply Santa, is a legendary figure originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring children gifts during the late evening and overnigh ...

- Sarala

Preservation

The

Academy Film Archive The Academy Film Archive is part of the Academy Foundation, established in 1944 with the purpose of organizing and overseeing the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ educational and cultural activities, including the preservation of m ...

preserved ''Devi'' in 1996.

Critical reception and legacy

The film received critical acclaim upon its release. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, ''Devi'' holds a score of 100% based on 10 reviews for an average rating of 7.6/10. Directors

William Wyler William Wyler (; born Willi Wyler (); July 1, 1902 – July 27, 1981) was a Swiss-German-American film director and producer who won the Academy Award for Best Director three times, those being for '' Mrs. Miniver'' (1942), '' The Best Years o ...

and

Elia Kazan Elia Kazan (; born Elias Kazantzoglou ( el, Ηλίας Καζαντζόγλου); September 7, 1909 – September 28, 2003) was an American film and theatre director, producer, screenwriter and actor, described by ''The New York Times'' as "one o ...

have described the film as "poetry on celluloid". The director

Francis Ford Coppola Francis Ford Coppola (; ; born April 7, 1939) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is considered one of the major figures of the New Hollywood filmmaking movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Coppola is the recipient of five ...

considers Devi to be Ray's best work and called it "a cinematic milestone". The film was adapted into an opera, ''The Goddess'', by

Allen Shearer Allen Raymond Shearer (born October 5, 1943 in Seattle, Washington) is an American composer and baritone. Life Shearer’s early musical experiences were as a singer; the majority of his works are for the voice or voices, with a later emphasis ...

Awards

;

National Film Awards The National Film Awards is the most prominent film award ceremony in India. Established in 1954, it has been administered, along with the International Film Festival of India and the Indian Panorama, by the Indian government's Directorat ...

1960 It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism. Events January * Ja ...

: President's silver medal for Best Feature Film in Bengali ;

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films ...

1962 Events January * January 1 – Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand. * January 3 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro for preaching communism. * January 8 – Harmelen train disaster: 93 die in the wor ...

Palme d'Or The Palme d'Or (; en, Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festival's highest prize was the Grand Prix du Fe ...

(Golden Palm) - Nominated

Other credits

* Art direction:

Bansi Chandragupta Bansi Chandragupta (1924–1981) was an Indian art director and production designer, regarded among the greatest of art directors of Indian film industry. He won Filmfare Best Art Direction Award thrice, for ''Seema'' in 1972, for ''Do Jhoot ...

* Sound designer: Durgadas Mitra

References

External links

*
satyajitray.org
{{National Film Award Best Feature Film Bengali 1960 films 1960 drama films Bengali-language Indian films Indian drama films Indian black-and-white films Films about Hinduism Films about women in India Films set in the 19th century Films directed by Satyajit Ray Films with screenplays by Satyajit Ray Best Bengali Feature Film National Film Award winners 1960s Bengali-language films Films adapted into operas