Ashani Sanket is one of the most beautiful and thought provoking films ever made, and I agree with most of the reviews here.
Satyajit Ray's theme of famine, and its effect on ordinary people is well understood, but there is so much more.
He did not set the film in the city, where he said himself he saw the dead and the dying on the streets every day. Instead, Ashani Sanket is set in a country village.
Consider the very opening shots of the film. Images of plentiful water as Babita expresses her wonder at being able to bathe. Again and again, all around the area we see plentiful, lush green growth as the women of the village forage for food. The only indication of trouble ahead is the roar of the planes overhead. It is "distant thunder", far away and little understood. The village elders debate the rumours of war in some unknown 'pore or other. The debate and worries about the distant war increase. But still the land itself remains green and lush.
The reaction of the merchants to the rumours is to ration their sales, and to guard their stocks using a repulsively disfigured chowkidar. But the rice is there. Hidden in old broken down buildings.
Not for nothing is the Bengal Rice Famine described as 'man-made'. Satyajit Ray's observation of human fears and frailties is so typical, However, he shows us not just the reaction to the shortage of rice, but the contribution of misunderstanding and fear to the causes of the famine . We should not overlook it here.
Satyajit Ray's theme of famine, and its effect on ordinary people is well understood, but there is so much more.
He did not set the film in the city, where he said himself he saw the dead and the dying on the streets every day. Instead, Ashani Sanket is set in a country village.
Consider the very opening shots of the film. Images of plentiful water as Babita expresses her wonder at being able to bathe. Again and again, all around the area we see plentiful, lush green growth as the women of the village forage for food. The only indication of trouble ahead is the roar of the planes overhead. It is "distant thunder", far away and little understood. The village elders debate the rumours of war in some unknown 'pore or other. The debate and worries about the distant war increase. But still the land itself remains green and lush.
The reaction of the merchants to the rumours is to ration their sales, and to guard their stocks using a repulsively disfigured chowkidar. But the rice is there. Hidden in old broken down buildings.
Not for nothing is the Bengal Rice Famine described as 'man-made'. Satyajit Ray's observation of human fears and frailties is so typical, However, he shows us not just the reaction to the shortage of rice, but the contribution of misunderstanding and fear to the causes of the famine . We should not overlook it here.