Babita, Chitra Banerjee, Govinda Chakravarti, Anil Ganguly, Noni Ganguly, Debatosh Ghosh

A rich and aching film that's set in Bengal during the man-made famine of 1943-44. With rice and other food products commandeered to feed the British armies in World War II, millions of East Indians died of starvation and epidemics; Ray's film recreates the era to suggest the behaviors people are capable of when deprived of basic needs. Along the way, he delivers a visually stunning work that also reveals a gender-based caste system and a sympathetic heroine (Ananga, played by Babita) whose raging sensuality becomes the conduit for the film's theme of desperation.

(by Rebecca L. Epstein)