06-09-2025, 10:58 PM
Stacy wants to revisit the Apu trilogy, a powerhouse from Satyajit Ray, one of the greatest filmmakers of all. If you haven’t seen it, you really should. It’s a cinematic masterpiece. We checked Criterion but were disappointed to discover that it only has parts 1 & 2. No 3. Bother.
Nevertheless Criterion has over a dozen of Ray’s films and I picked this one at random, knowing nothing about it.
What a gut punch. Again, Ray delivers an intense tale, a quiet B&W that leans heavily into the black, and drops an emotional bomb about faith and devotion that left me shook. A young bride’s husband is studying English away from the family mansion. He returns for a festival but then goes back to complete his studies and exams, leaving his young wife with his father, his brother and his brother’s wife and son. Doyamoyee (the bride) helps her father-in-law with his daily rituals and her in-laws with their son. Thr father is a devotee of Kali and has a dream that Doyamoyee is her incarnation. He enshrines her and she performs a miracle that attracts believers from far and wide. Then things turn badly.
It’s a creeper of a film, sucking you in scene by scene, moving slowly to inevitable tragedy, and when that happens, no one is spared. Ray’s style of storytelling is intelligent and emotional, examining big questions from the perspective of common folk (although here, the family is very affluent). And in the end, he offers no answers, just a rumination of where conflicts of faith might collapse. A brilliant film.
Recommended for D00Mers who love arthouse films.
Nevertheless Criterion has over a dozen of Ray’s films and I picked this one at random, knowing nothing about it.
What a gut punch. Again, Ray delivers an intense tale, a quiet B&W that leans heavily into the black, and drops an emotional bomb about faith and devotion that left me shook. A young bride’s husband is studying English away from the family mansion. He returns for a festival but then goes back to complete his studies and exams, leaving his young wife with his father, his brother and his brother’s wife and son. Doyamoyee (the bride) helps her father-in-law with his daily rituals and her in-laws with their son. Thr father is a devotee of Kali and has a dream that Doyamoyee is her incarnation. He enshrines her and she performs a miracle that attracts believers from far and wide. Then things turn badly.
It’s a creeper of a film, sucking you in scene by scene, moving slowly to inevitable tragedy, and when that happens, no one is spared. Ray’s style of storytelling is intelligent and emotional, examining big questions from the perspective of common folk (although here, the family is very affluent). And in the end, he offers no answers, just a rumination of where conflicts of faith might collapse. A brilliant film.
Recommended for D00Mers who love arthouse films.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse