Devi (1960 film)

In 19th-century rural Bengal, Doyamoyee (Sharmila Tagore) and her husband Umaprasad (Soumitra Chatterjee) 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.

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 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 being washed). Then a man comes with his terminally ill son, and after drinking this charanamrito, the son woke 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 strats 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 avoid 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. That saddens her deeply but she was unable to escape as she was bound to superstitions and a patriarchal society.

Meanwhile, Khoka has developed a severe fever. The family refuses to go to doctor, rather they believed 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 the father in law to visit the doctor. But as young girl of seventeen, Doyamoyee is unable to voice it out and instead decides to keep Khokha with her for that night because she misses his company, while hoping he recovers miraculously.

Next day morning, when Umaprasad returns to home to take action against his father's beliefs and to make Doyamoyee free from this situation, he finds that his father is crying at Godess Kali's feet. The reason is at that morning Khoka has died due to lack of proper treatment, the Charanamrito doesn't work and the belief cost the kid's life. And then Umaprasad goes to Doyamoyee's room and finds her in an insane condition, as she mumbles that she should go to water (symbolic bisarjan - god and goddess statues are drowned in water after the worship is completed)..otherwise the family would kill her.

The story finely plotted the religious dogmatism.

• Sharmila Tagore - Dayamoyee
• Chhabi Biswas - Kalikinkar Choudhuri
• Soumitra Chatterjee - Umaprasad
• Purnendu Mukherjee - Taraprasad
• Karuna Banerjee - Harasundari
• Arpan Chowdhury - Khoka, child
• Anil Chatterjee - Bhudeb
• Kali Sarkar - Professor Sarkar
• Mohammed Israil - Nibaran
• Khagesh Chakravarti - Kaviraj
• Nagendranath Kabyabyakarantirtha - Priest
• Santa Devi - Sarala

The Academy Film Archive preserved Devi in 1996.[1]

The film received critical acclaim upon its release.[2] On Rotten Tomatoes, Devi holds a score of 100% based on 10 reviews for an average rating of 7.6/10.[3] Directors William Wyler and Elia Kazan have described the film as "poetry on celluloid".[4][5]

National Film Awards

• 1960: President's Silver Medal for Best Feature Film in Bengali[6]

Cannes Film Festival

• 1962: Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) - Nominated[7]

• Art direction: Bansi Chandragupta
• Sound designer: Durgadas Mitra

• Devi at IMDb
• satyajitray.org