Devi is a poignant story of a young girl Doyamoyee (Sharmila tagore) who is married into a wealthy family to the youngest son,Umaprasad (Soumitra Chatterjee), who is studying at Kolkata. The father-in-law, Kalikinkar Roy is very much dependent on the young daughter-in-law and affectionately calls her ma, meaning mother. Doya is a silent yet very loving and devoted to her family. The few scenes that shows Khoka (meaning kid in Bengali) who is the son of the the eldest son in the family and the parrot being fed by her shows her affectionate nature.
Now the 60's where the time when women were restricted around the household, they had to cover their face (cower) from men other than their husbands (It still is, in many parts of our country). This imagery of dutiful wife, daughter-in-law is so graciously conveyed by Sharmila.
The first half of the movie gives a good insight into each of the character, like for example of the eldest daughter in law who is strict and yet good natured. Her husband meanwhile is heavily dependent on his father for everything and hence takes his dictum verbatim. Uma on the other hand belongs to the young generation of 60's well-educated, hopeful of a promising career and deeply in love with his young wife.
Things take an ugly turn when the father-in-law dreams that Doya is the incarnation of Goddess Durga herself. What is a dream after-all? a virtual, cooked-up projection of reality? Roy, who is devoted to worshiping Durga , and who finds happiness lighted up in his family by Doya , no wonder conjures up an image of her as the re-incarnation of Goddess herself. Doya who is a dutiful daughter-in-law does not speak against her father-in-law though she has misgivings and silently endures the whole situation.
Uma's character as the one torn between not upstaging his father on one hand and rescuing his bride on the other is well acted out by Chatterjee.
Tagore's acting of bearing this burden in impeachable, she carriers such powerful emotions just through her eyes and body language that Doya's silence fails to. The silent understanding that passes when Uma witnesses her on an altar being worshiped by a throng of people and the the resulting talks on the banks when they decide to elope is just too good.
Satyajit Ray's direction of building up the movie to the last scene where Doya breaks down completely when Khoka dies. Her illogical ramblings and her makeup that denotes Goddess Kali the demon destroyer is ultimate. The narrative, pace, timing, attention to detail is immaculate.
A bit of retrospect on the movie made me realize that the story can be interpreted in 2 ways which makes the movie hard to brand as anti-religion. You could say Doya was a goddess incarnate and she showered the Thakur's household with blessings and happiness, but ultimately Durga is also Kali who is uncompromising and shows no pity for the one who errs and hence takes away Khoka. Although the movie does not talk about Kali, but has used the term - Demoness, I find the narrative this way making more sense. The other way round you could Thakur's blind beliefs corrupted Doya's mind accompanied by the co-incidental coming to life of the beggar boy at her altar (Also, remember that his uncle has already given him a variety of medicines earlier before submitting to Doya's. The medicine's late reaction could have saved the boy's life). The rest of the miraculous healings could be just a matter of faith, you believe strongly enough and that can work miracles for you. Where as for Khoka, who fell sick had no such advantage. He was already in an unconscious state unaware that his favourite aunt was the one who held him.
One image that often haunts me, the dream Roy has - the shining bindi on Doya's forehead,
transforming into the same bindi on the Devi's.
