Ashani Sanket (Distant Thunder) (1973)
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88% of users liked it
(371 ratings)
Satyajit Ray's drama about the Bengal famine of 1942-1943 stars frequent Ray collaborator Soumitra Chatterjee as Gangacharan, a Brahmin who sets up a school in a remote Bengali village. As World War II drains India's resources, the price of rice begins to rise, and soon the villagers can no… More Satyajit Ray's drama about the Bengal famine of 1942-1943 stars frequent Ray collaborator Soumitra Chatterjee as Gangacharan, a Brahmin who sets up a school in a remote Bengali village. As World War II drains India's resources, the price of rice begins to rise, and soon the villagers can no longer afford to eat. Merchants horde their grain and the impoverished villagers riot in protest. Gangacharan manages to survive for a while by exchanging his teaching services for food, but the devastation around him soon becomes so desperate that his altruism overcomes his instinct for self-preservation. ~ Tom Vick, Rovi
- Directed By
- Satyajit Ray
- Genres
- Art House & International, Drama
Unrated,
- In Theaters
- Oct 11, 1973 Wide
Critic Reviews
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Jay Cocks, TIME Magazine
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.
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Tom Milne, Time Out
Distant thunder, indeed; a superb film.
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Cast
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Soumitra Chatterjee
as Gangacharan
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Babita
as Ananga Gangacharan's wife
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Gobinda Chakravarty
as Dinabandhu
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Romesh Mukerji
as Biswas
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Sandhya Roy
as Chutki
- Babita Kapoor
- Chitra Banerjee
- Govinda Chakravarti
