In a body of work that includes The Music Room, the Apu Trilogy and Charulata, Satyajit Ray’s sixth feature, Devi (1960) is an unfairly overlooked gem that is dwarfed by the director’s masterpieces that came before and after. Named for the ubiquitous Hindu Mother Goddess, Devi is Ray’s first explicitly political film, one that challenges religious zealotry and India’s male-controlled power arrangements, wrapped up in a simple domestic narrative.
The film opens during the annual Durga Puja, a festival that honors the goddess, Durga. Set in the late 19th century, Devi takes place in the Bengal village of Chandipur, a small town overcome by the shadow of British colonialism. It is a joyful festival, however, one full of bells and fireworks, one that is centuries old. And it’s here that Ray’s conflict arises.
One evening, patriarch Kalikinkar Roy (Chhabi Biswas) dreams that his young daughter-in-law, Doyamoyee (Sharmila Tagore) is actually the earthly embodiment of Devi. While his son Umaprasad (Ray regular Soumitra Chatterjee), Doyamoyee’s husband, is away in Kolkata studying, Kalikinkar convinces the men in Chandipur that his daughter-in-law is the goddess and can perform miracles. As India ages into the 20th century, a direct clash between old ways and modernity threatens to destroy the Roy family.
Ray has often studied the intersection where modernity and the past collided in India. He has embodied innovation via the metaphor of a train (Pather Panchali) or a pair of opera glasses (Charulata) but in Devi, the director isn’t lamenting the loss of old ideals. Instead, he is taking a stand not only against irrational belief but the treatment of women in India. Though Doyamoyee is the lead character in the film, she does little more than what the men around her tell her to do. It makes sense as Doyamoyee is only 17 years old (played with tender precision by the 14-year-old Tagore), not even an adult but married off to the absent Umaprasad. Kalikinkar, who adores his doting daughter-in-law, represents orthodoxy while Umaprasad stands for educated rationality. This struggle is what informs Devi. Doyamoyee is an often-mute pawn in the middle of this conflict as her father-in-law goads the town into believing while her husband rejects all notions of the supernatural.
Though Ray is firmly on the side of Umaprasad, who sometimes speaks English as a status symbol and is confident that science has all the answers, his allegiance also lies with the naïve Doyamoyee who was shuffled from child to bride. Doyamoyee lives to serve her family, giving foot massages to Kalikinkar and caring for young nephew, Khoka (Arpan Chowdhury). Kalikinkar enjoys acting like his daughter-in-law’s child, even calling her “Ma.”
Ray knows that people want to believe, underscoring this desire during a scene when Umaprasad, home from Kolkata, confronts his father for lionizing his wife. Ray crosscuts this scene with Doyamoyee dressed as the goddess and mutely sitting on a pedestal as a villager arrives with the inert form of a boy, begging that she heal the sick child. After feeding the lifeless boy water used to wash Doyamoyee’s feet, he recovers, and the village rejoices. That evening, Umaprasad tries to escape with Doyamoyee but as they reach the outskirts of town, she refuses. “What if I am the Goddess?” she asks, not out of ego but genuinely confused about her own role in what has transpired.
By losing whatever little agency she once possessed, Doyamoyee has submitted to Devi’s patriarchal society. Both Umaprasad and his sister, Harasundari (Karuna Banerjee believe their father is losing his mind but can do little to stop the town from believing in Kalikinkar’s ravings once the boy is healed. For her part, Doyamoyee is also a victim. How can she have any self-awareness in a society where a woman isn’t allowed access to education or power?
Kalikinkar’s beliefs lead Devi to a tragic ending. When Khoka falls ill, a desperate Harasundari brings to boy to Doyamoyee, begging that she heal him. The girl wavers, unsure that she can do anything for the boy. Doyamoyee asks her sister-in-law to leave Khoka with her until morning and if he is still ill, then she can take him to a doctor for medical treatment. Sadly, Khoka doesn’t last the night. Umaprasad blames the child’s death on his father claiming, “your blind faith caused his death.”
Khoka isn’t the only casualty. As the film ends, Doyamoyee is driven mad by the tragedy and runs off into the mist. She is completely lost and without hope, an object broken by the men around her. Umaprasad, for all his practicality, cannot save his wife and as she vanishes into the ethers, he is just as culpable as Kalikinkar for her insanity. Ray would return to the plight of women in India in later films, but never again with an outlook as bleak and hopeless as Devi.
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