A carefully nuanced study in religious obsession, Ray’s film takes up the story of Biswas, who is convinced that his young daughter-in-law, Tagore, is in fact the goddess Kali reincarnated. Baroque and melodramatic in both its images and story, it mounts a lucid and compelling argument against the destructive nature of fanaticism and superstition—a message that is reinforced as Tagore gradually loses all sense of her own individuality. The images are striking and there are intriguing glimpses into religious fervor on the sub-continent.