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Distant Thunder(1973 film)

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Ashani Sanket
A poster forAshani Sanket
Directed bySatyajit Ray
Screenplay bySatyajit Ray
Based onAshani Sanket
byBibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay
StarringSoumitra Chatterjee
Bobita
Sandhya Roy
Monu Mukherjee
CinematographySoumendu Roy
Edited byDulal Dutta
Music bySatyajit Ray
Production
company
Balaka Movies
Distributed byNanda Bhattacharya
Release dates
  • June 1973(1973-06)(Berlin)
  • 16 August 1973(1973-08-16)(India)
Running time
101 minutes
CountryIndia
LanguageBengali

Distant Thunder(Bengali:অশনি সংকেত;translit.Ashani Sanket) is a 1973Bengali filmby the Indian directorSatyajit Ray,based on the novel by the same name byBibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay.[1] Unlike most of Ray's earlier films,Distant Thunderwas filmed in colour. It starsSoumitra Chatterjee,who headlined numerous Ray films, and the Bangladeshi actressBobitain her only prominent international role. Today the film features inThe New York Times Guide to the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made.[2]It marked the debut of the theatre star Mrityunjay Sil.[2]

Overview

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The film is set in a village in the Indian province ofBengalduring World War II, and examines the effect of theGreat Famine of 1943on the villages of Bengal through the eyes of a youngBrahmindoctor-teacher, Gangacharan, and his wife, Angana. Ray shows the human scale of a cataclysmic event that killed more than 3 million people. The film unfolds at a leisurely pace that reflects the rhythms of village life, but gradually shows the breakdown of traditional village norms under the pressure of hunger and starvation.[3][4]

Cast

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  • Soumitra Chatterjeeas Gangacharan Chakravarti
  • Bobitaas Angana/Gangacharan's wife
  • Chitra Banerjee as Moti
  • Govinda Chakravarti - Dinabandhu
  • Anil Gangulyas Nibaran
  • Noni Ganguly as Scarface' Jadu
  • Debatosh Ghosh as Adhar
  • Ramesh Mukherjee as Biswas
  • Sheli Pal as Mokshada
  • Suchita Ray Chaudhury as Khenti
  • Sandhya Royas Chutki
  • Mrityunjay Sil as Ajay (Cameo)[2]

Reception

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Vincent CanbyofThe New York Timescalled the film "moving" and "elegiac". He remarks that the film "has the impact of an epic without seeming to mean to" and noted various connections with Ray's ownApu Trilogy(in its casting of Chatterjee and in it being an adaptation of anotherBibhutibhushan Bandopadhyaynovel). "It is, however, very different from those early films" he writes, "It is the work of a director who has learned the value of narrative economy to such an extent that 'Distant Thunder,' which is set against the backdrop of the 'manmade' famine that wiped out 5 million people in 1943, has the simplicity of afable."[4]Tom MilneofTime Outcalls the film "[d]istant thunder, indeed; a superb film."[5]Dennis Schwartz gave the film an A− and called it "[a] gentle humanist film that informs the world that over five million died of starvation and epidemics in Bengal."[6]Jay Cockswriting forTimeechoes Canby's assessment of it as a "fable",writing:" Distant Thunder has the deliberate, unadorned reality of a folk tale, a fable of encroaching, enlarging catastrophe. "He calls the film" superb and achingly simple... Numbers as huge as [ "5 million" ] can be dangerous. A tragedy of such magnitude becomes an event abstracted by arithmetic. But Ray's artistry alters the scale. His concentrating on just a few victims of the famine causes such massive loss to become real, immediate. Ray makes numbers count. "[7]

Legacy

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In 2012, filmmakerAmit Duttaincluded the film in his personal top ten (for "The Sight & Sound Top 50 Greatest Films of All Time"poll).[8]

Awards

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Berlin International Film Festival
21st National Film Awards

References

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  1. ^AshaniArchived28 February 2009 at theWayback MachineSatyajit Ray Film and Study Centre,University of California, Santa Cruz.
  2. ^abcThe Best 1,000 Movies Ever Madeby the film critics ofThe New York Times,The New York Times,2002.
  3. ^Movie Review - Ashani SanketByVincent Canby,The New York Times,12 October 1973.
  4. ^abOverviewThe New York Times.
  5. ^"Distant Thunder (Ashani Sanket) (1973)"– viaRotten Tomatoes.
  6. ^"distantthunder".homepages.sover.net.Archived fromthe originalon 7 December 2017.Retrieved14 June2019.
  7. ^Cocks, Jay(24 November 1975)."Cinema: Famine".Time.
  8. ^"Amit Dutta - BFI".www.bfi.org.uk.Archived fromthe originalon 18 August 2016.
  9. ^"Berlinale 1973: Prize Winners".berlinale.de.Retrieved27 June2010.
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