Sandhya Roy

Gangacharan is a village Brahmin who teaches, organizes religious events and tries to prevent epidemics. However, things get difficult with a raging war and an approaching famine.

SEATTLE FILM SOCIETY August 20, 1977 DISTANT THUNDER. Written and directed by Satyajit Ray. India, 1972. Music: Ray. Leading players: Soumitra Chatterji, Babita. If you crossed an Italian neorealist film with a work by Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu, the result might be something like Distant Thunder. In a unique way, Indian director Satyajit Ray combines a social consciousness in a changing society with a slow narrative style to reveal nuances of character. The relaxed pace allows us to enter the world and experience the internal process and transformation of an individual. Rays films often play on the tension between traditional customs and the effects of urban modernization with a naturalness that has you wondering if his characters are real people or actors. There are few directors who give you the sense of knowing the characters as Ray does. Soumitra Chatterji as the Brahmin in Distant Thunder is gradually revealed on several levels through his relationship with his wife, students, patients and townspeople. It is the visibility of his internal dialogue and the reassessment of his values and social position amidst the so-called manmade famine of 1943 that structure the movement of the film. As the Brahmin's authority and stature in the community are rendered inconsequential by a hunger which levels all class distinctions, he is forced to give up the superiority which separates him from the peasants. With deliberate and dissecting camera movement, Ray establishes a set of polarities from the opening shots which mark the progression of Chatterji's character. His wife Babita is introduced via a hand rising above the swirling waters of a river. The course of the film literally flows in and around water, and the beginning of the famine is signaled by the cholera epidemic which prevents use of river water for drinking. Similarly, the turning point in the pundits life occurs at the waters edge. Crushed by his impotence after watching a riot at the rice mill he retreats to the shore to reconsider his position. He has been undergoing a gradual disillusionment, and comments to his wife that he doesnt understand the inability of money to buy what they need. It is Babita who proves to be more resourceful, and her embodiment of the creative force is indicated by her closeness to water. After an attempted rape she throws herself into the cleansing river. She is the one who must ultimately become the provider for the family and the link to the community. Opposed to the creative spirit expressed through the water imagery is a progression of fire symbols, signs of a burnt-out existence. The first indication of an interruption of natural forces comes in the opening moments as the townswomen, bathing, watch the flying ships overhead, harbingers of war and famine. Ray uses several closeups of insects and butterflies feeding on parched ground, but the most obvious use of fire is the badly burned body of the kiln worker. In this distorted social order he ironically becomes the supplier of grain. He is constantly seen lighting cigarettes, and smoking is a kind of social ritual throughout the film. Notice the discarded cigarette tossed in the stream as well as other instances of burning and clouding-over of life-giving water. Just as Babita's contact with the natural forces signifies a sympathy and understanding of the other sufferers, the grotesque halfburned, half-normal face of the kiln worker exaggerates his isolation and separateness from the rest of society. He has too much face. To comprehend his place in the life of the community and move closer to its creative center, the Brahmin must humble himself and undergo a loss of face. We see his metamorphosis as Ray builds silhouettes against a vast sky. The first silhouette is that of the old beggar man who asks the Brahmin for food. Later, as he realizes his false dependence on the peasants, the Brahmin undergoes his loss of face and he too appears in silhouette. Throughout the film we find small forms outlined against a large background until the final climactic and powerful image of a community joined together against a disaster manufactured by an individual act somewhere in the distance. James Greenberg Submitted by James Spee on July 18, 2007. I first saw this film at the Seattle Film Society showing 30 years ago and I still remember it vividly.

Balraj (Dharmendra), affectionately called Raj, by his elder brother (Nana Palsikar) and sister Vija (Madhumati), is a student in college in the arts semester. As the family is not very rich, Raj decides to move from the hostel to the residence of a family. He finds one such family in Gandhinagar, which consists of Choudhury Hukumat Rai (Ashok Kumar), a lawyer by profession, his wife (Nimmi), and only daughter Shanti (Mala Sinha). Hukumat takes an instant liking to Raj, and tells him that his wife will only allow him to take up residence if he tells her that he is already married. Raj reluctantly does so, and thus acquires residence with the Rai family. Eventually Mrs. Rai takes a liking to Raj, so does Shanti. Shanti finds out Raj and her dad had lied to the family about Raj's marital status, she confronts Raj, and he readily admits that he lied. Both fall in love. Mr. and Mrs. Rai are thrilled, when they come to know that Raj and Shanti are in love, and excitedly plan their marriage. As Raj's brother is critically ill, Raj has to return to his village. After several days when Raj returns to the Rai family, he refuses to marry Shanti on the ground that he is going to marry Gauri (Sandhya Roy). The Rai family is devastated. And then they find out that then Raj has been arrested for killing someone. —rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)

Anand, the grandson of a rich man, leaves home to avoid an arranged marriage. He ends up falling for a girl in Mumbai, but his grandfather will do anything to bring him back home.

Gauri Shankar Roy looks like Shankar Singh, the king of Jhind. However, when Shankar disappears, a person from the kingdom approaches Gauri to assume the identity of the missing king.