Ashani Sanket

Distant Thunder

a Journey through Mysticism
in search of Human values
Social Ethics
& Freedom
 Basic Information

 Director/ Music/ Screenplay – Satyajit Ray
 Author: Bibhuti Bhushan Banerjee
 Cinematographer- Soumendu Roy
 Editor – Dulal Dutta
 Language – Bengali, 1973
 Lead Actors: Soumitra Chatterjee & Babita
 Supported by: Sandhya Roy, Ramesh Mukherjee, Noni
Ganguli & Chitra
 National award for best Bengali film and music ‘73
 Golden Bear – Berlin Film Festival ‘73
 Golden Hugo – Chicago Film Festival ‘74
 Some Quotes

  Sun is not sight but it is the cause of sight itself. While it is
the cause of knowledge and truth, it is also an object of
knowledge. Plato
 The one who does not remember history is bound to live
through it again- George Santayana
 Happy is he who has discovered the causes of things and
has cast beneath his feet all fears, unavoidable fate, and
the din of the devouring underworld.- Virgil
 Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain
or usher storm, but to add colour to my sunset sky. Tagore
 Approaches to deconstruct the
Narration

 Ashani Sanket: Distant Thunder, is by its own
declaration, a story set within a metaphoric mould
 So while there is a real crisis of the Great Bengal
Famine of 1943, the narration chooses the humanist
approach instead of an eco-critical nature
 The Form and Content is therefore seeing the human
tragedy in a dispassionate and ‘wonder-ful’ manner
 It has no room for scepticism and believes that Life
exists only for the larger Good and each individual can
only take one positive step at a time
 Approaches to deconstruct the
Narration

 Evidences to deconstruct the ‘Humanist’ approach
adopted by Satyajit Ray
 Opening shots of Nature/ clouds/ raindrops etc.
 The lush green landscape of the village
 The variety of animals/ birds and insects seen as part of
the environment evoking many meanings
 The innocence of Children in an adult world
 The various sources of light and luminance
 The subtle and invisible practises of Casteism
 The human need for sexual gratification
 Approaches to deconstruct the
Narration

 Primary Characters:
 Gangacharan: A Brahmin priest/ teacher/ doctor who
is new to the village
 Ananga: His wife who has come from another village
 Moti: Her low caste friend
 Biswas: The main rice trader and village headman
 Chutki: The neighbouring woman, bold and beautiful
 Jadu: The brick kiln manager who loves Chutki
 Approaches to deconstruct the
Narration

 Characterization:
 Gangacharan: As the only Brahmin he can freely ‘exploit’ his status
and talent
 Since he is neither rich nor a poor farmer he manages to understand
the dilemma of the masses
 Through him we see others who are more intelligent, street smart
and ambitious
 Ananga: She is conscious of her beauty and poverty removes that
self-image
 She is very traditional/ charitable and soon learns to adjust with the
hard realities of life around her
 She has a keen spirit of enquiry
 Approaches to deconstruct the
Narration

 Characterization:
 Moti: Ananga’s low caste friend. She functions like the opening
and the closing of the story. The change in her life is only marginal
 Biswas: As the village headman he alienates himself from his
community to survive the consequences of war and its consequent
price rise
 Chutki: The ambiguity of her husband makes her adventurous and
break all traditions. She is willing to make sacrifices in order to
survive
 Jadu: He loves Chutki but for a price. He too has dreams to fulfil
and the only way is through migration/ displacement
 Approaches to deconstruct the
Narration

 Form and Content:
 Ray’s Humanistic approach blends ethics and aesthetics. He
is able to see serious moral issues with a sense of beauty;
interconnectedness and solemnity
 The Philosophy of Mysticism enables his form and content
to accommodate serious issues such as this worst famine
without pointing fingers
 The Modernist in him believes that ‘progress’ is inevitable
and therefore displacement can be the only way to become
a better human being. It causes pain but that is the only way
for progress to happen.
 Approaches to deconstruct the
Narration

 Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the value and
agency of human beings, individually and collectively, affirming that
human beings have the right and responsibility to give meaning and
shape to their own lives
 Mysticism is the practice of religious ecstasies, together with
whatever ideologies, ethics, rites, myths, legends, and magic may be
related to them
 Modernism is both a philosophical movement and an art movement;
in visual art, architecture, dance, and music, it was a break with the
past and the concurrent search for new forms of expression; it
fostered a period of experimentation in the arts from the late 19th to
the mid-20th century, particularly in the years following World War I.
 Approaches to deconstruct the
Narration

 Form and Content:
 Ray’s design principles are indeed unique
 All scenes are constructed within a circular mould.
Every action has a corresponding reaction, planted
somewhere in the work
 Some of them are constructive and take the story
forward while some are destructive
 His nature motifs demand that we see them as
metaphors as ‘invisible’ forces that shape up the
emotional core of the story
 Approaches to the Narratee

 The various Characters in the film come to know about
so many things:
 Gangacharan and Ananga come to know about the
second world war/ planes and hoarding
 Through Chutki, Ananga comes to know about other
ways of survival
 The peasants learn the reality about price rises and
stocking up of food
 The villagers come to know about how to save
themselves from Cholera
 Approaches to the Narratee

 We, the audiences learnt about:
 The different ways that caste systems operate in a
typical Bengal village
 How insiders and outsiders deal with a situation and
transform it to their own advantage or someone else’s
disadvantage
 How women respond to crisis in different ways from
the way men do
 The documentary images provide another dimensions
 Approaches to the Narrative

 The Politics of the film are structured within a debate
between Vulnerability of a Nation during a war and
the Capability of Individuals to respond and find a
way out for themselves
 The relation between State and the Citizen is different
from the way Family units and their neighbourly
relations operate
 Approaches to the Narrative

 What should be the role of a “realistic” film like
‘Ashani Sanket’ in a country like India which is
largely steeped in melodramatic cinema?
 Is realism an appropriate film form for disseminating
vital information or should this responsibility be given
to other media?
 Why do such films get more international recognition
and even national awards when successful
mainstream films get ignored?
 In Conclusion

 The presentations should focus on one of the four
areas in a primary way and refer to the other three
aspects of narratology for reference
 It should however touch upon some of the important
philosophical positions in the film and explain its
larger connection
 It must ensure that we get informed a little more
about the Great Bengal Famine of 1943 and its
consequences on the people and the empire