Product Details

• Actors: Chhabi Biswas, Soumitra Chatterjee, Sharmila Tagore, Purnendu Mukherjee, Karuna Bannerjee
• Directors: Satyajit Ray
• Writers: Satyajit Ray, Prabhat Kumar Mukherjee
• Producers: Satyajit Ray
• Format: Color, Subtitled, NTSC, Full Screen
• Language: Bengali
• Subtitles: English
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Sony Pictures
• VHS Release Date: September 2, 1997
• Run Time: 93 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6304587406
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #289,126 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential video

In this 1960 Satyajit Ray film, Kalikinkar Roy (Chhabi Biswas, who also appeared in Jalsaghar) has a revelation that his daughter-in-law, Doyamoyee (Sharmila Tagore), is the incarnation of the goddess Kali.

When his son Umaprasad (Soumitra Chatterjee, The World of Apu) returns from university in Calcutta, he is appalled to find that his wife has been made a virtual prisoner of his father's obsession. Doyamoyee is decorated as a living goddess and forced to sit all day in the temple where people come to offer her prayers.

When an impoverished man brings his only son to this reluctant goddess and he is cured, everyone believes that she has performed a miracle. Then her beloved nephew Khoka gets sick. Will another miracle happen? Or is simply believing not enough?

Dark and brooding, this is another powerful human portrait by the Svengali of Bengali filmmaking. Ray exposes the underbelly of twisted human desire and the overwhelming compulsion to rob others of the right to control their own destiny.

Based on the story Devi by Prabhart Kumar Mukherjee, the film is 93 minutes long and is shot in black and white. The music is by Ali Akbar Khan. --Luanne Brown

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant piece from the master director, March 14, 2002

By 

Debabrata Ghatak (India) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Devi (The Goddess) [VHS] (VHS Tape)

It is heard that none other than the legendary,nobel-laureate Bengalee poet , Rabindranath Tagore gave the storyline of Devi to its writer Prabhat Mukherjee.It is also heard that,Tagore was not particularly happy with the story when it was completed by Mukherjee.

Whether the story was wish-fulfilling to Tagore or not,I guess Ray was definitely happy with the story as it gave him the right amount of conflicts to make a good drama.

The storyline is simple:the father-in-law(Chobi Biswas) beleives that his daughter-in-law(Sharmila Tagore) is an incarnation of Goddess Kali and some coincidental incidents strenthen his belief.The son(Soumitra Chatterjee) is an educated youth who comes home from the city and compleately denies the whole fact.The conflict is now between the outdated father and the modern son.The innocent daughter-in-law is caught in the vortex of this conflict.See for yourself where this conflict ultimately culminates in.

Ray paints these conflict scenarios with his characteristic mood-setting and brilliant camera actions throughout the film.
One example of mood-setting of a nighttime in a countryside could be that scene where the couple's kiss behind a mosquito-net is shot in a scantily-lit set with shrilling crickets and howling jackals in the backdrop.
Talking about how Ray used his movie-camera to instill a picture in your mind one just has to remember that very long shot of thousands of people making a beeline to see the incarnation or "Devi".

To sum it up,this movie made way back in 1960 is still strikingly relevant and definitely is a grand treat to your heart, to your consciences - a work of masterly direction and some superb acting by the casts.You must see it.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful and terrifying film!, October 22, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Devi (The Goddess) [VHS] (VHS Tape)

It is incredibly difficult to review any film by Satyavit Ray because he is an artist without peer...director, screen writer, composer. Devi is one of his best films. It could be entitled, "Is she or isn't she?" because even to the end of the film, one wonders whether or not the bride is "Kali", the goddess of creation and destruction. On the surface, this appears to be a film about a young bride victimized by her father-in-law who turns her into a living, religeous icon. Yet the story takes a strange turn when, instead of prospering from the goddess's favors, the family experiences tragedy....ah, the destructive face of Kali. So, "is she or isn't she really Kali?". Wonderful acting and a beautiful film. Be sure to see it.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars beautiful and chillingly cautionary film......., February 17, 2006

By 

D. Pawl "Dani" (Seattle) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Devi (The Goddess) [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This film continues to permeate my mind, eleven years afer the first time I had the honor to see it, in its full glory, in the movie theater. This very important story is a character study of the role of the young wife in the culture of Satyajit Ray's Bengali-speaking society. (I wish I could say what region of India this film was specific to. There is such a diversity of cultures in India, it would be unfair to generalize this role, in saying that this is the image that the entire nation has of Indian wives, and their responsiblity to their husband, as well as to the hearth.)

Doyamoyee (Sharmila Tagore) is the beautiful, seventeen year old bride of Umaprasad (Soumitra Chatterjee). When Umaprasad must go away for an extended period of time, Doyamoyee is left to stay with his family--that includes his father, Kalikinkar (Chhabi Biswas). A prophetic vision comes to Kalikinkar, while he is dreaming. He sees Doyamoyee as the healing goddess, Kali. Once that imagery lingers in his mind, he is convinced that she has been annointed as the second coming of the goddess, and has the power to heal the sick in their community. That said, she is made to sit on an alter, day in and day out, and perform healing rituals for the afflicted. Umaprasad arrives home, to discover, this, and is more than skeptical.

This is a cautionary tale at how far visions will drive people, to realize--quite literally, in this case--their dreams. Ray poses this important point, through beautiful storytelling (through his use of cinematography, direction and wonderful acting). They really need to re-release in the theaters. Satyajit Ray is one of the most important directors of all time, in my opinion. The newer generation needs to see his films, to fully appreciate his artistic genius, as a storyteller and filmmaker. This is a great introduction......Also reccomended: "Two Daughters" and "The Stranger."