Starring a teenaged Sharmila Tagore in her second Ray film after Apur Sansar, again with Soumitra Chatterjee as her husband, Devi continues the seamless, hypnotic lyricism of Ray’s Apu trilogy, here with a woman at the mercy of culture, class, religion, family and, to a devastating extent, the male gaze. Set in the late 19th century, Doyamoyee lives with her husband Umaprasad’s wealthy, rural Bengali family while he completes his education in the city. She passively accepts the benign affections of her influential, aristocratic father-in-law until he has a dream revealing that she is the incarnation of the goddess Kali. Suddenly, her confinement and objectification are crystallized and on display for all the world to see. Both reduced to an inert idol and granted supernatural powers, she is alienated from her loved ones who either worship, resent or fear her. Despite not everyone not falling under this trance, the mere question of her deification serves to undermine and unravel the crumbling patriarchal structure, until, under extreme duress, it collapses. Ultimately, Doya does undergo a startling transformation, yet it is not ordained from the heavens, but breathtakingly, heartbreakingly of this fractured earth.